Arm wrestlers from across Southland will be facing off at Invercargill Central mall on Saturday. (Aug 15) in a knockout competition run by Southland Arm Wrestling (SAW). Club secretary and treasurer Mel Shepherd said the event, which is being held in Invercargill Central, is set to be “a lot of fun”. Titled Last Warrior Standing, it will be a 30-minute knockout style event in which where whoever wins stays in until they lose. The competition is being organised by Southland Arm Wrestling. “The person who wins the first one might win 20 in a row, they might win two in a row — there might be strategies to last the distance,” club secretary and treasurer Mel Shepherd said. Ms Shepherd started arm wrestling in February last year and is now working to properly formalise SAW. “The club’s been operating for quite a number of years but in a more informal space, we’re doing quite a push to formalise and grow the club.” She said she had never been interested in more mainstream sports like rugby and netball, drawn to the uniqueness of arm wrestling after reading about the previous year’s national competition. “I thought: ‘that’s a thing?’ — it sounded really cool.” The sport It had flown under the radar for a while, but she Ms Shepherd said it was it’s increasing in popularity every year, particularly among women. “People think it’s what happens on a Saturday night down the back of the pub … year on year it’s growing even for women in the sport.” In the 2024 nationals there were four to five women, the next year it increased to nine, and last year there were 16. She Ms Shepherd said she had found a lot of passion for the sport — “for women like me, I’ve never done sport in my life” — and now she had competed in a national tournament. Blair Bekhuis is similarly new to the sport and described arm wrestling as but described it igniting his competitive spirit. He grew up with three brothers, to which he credits to his passion for wanting to be strong. “I want to be the strongest. I want to be that guy that’s stronger than everybody, that beats them all,” he said. Mr Bekhuis He said if more people knew the sport existed, they would likely probably feel the that same level of passion as him. “I think it’s embedded in a lot of us … it’s dormant, the passion for it … , they don’t even know about it, it was like that for me.” Ms Shepherd said she wanted the upcoming event to showcase arm wrestling as a sport, hoping to draw more eyes to the club. “It’s a great thing, it’s a sport that anybody can have a go … these guys have the patience of a saint because they’re all way stronger than me.” she said. She said there was a certain level of camaraderie, stretching as far as the Otago club. Mr Bekhuis hoped the event would also bring more diversity to the club, attracting people of all different levels. “If we can get more people in then we’ve got everybody at all the different levels, then we’ll have somebody to match everybody.” he said. After competing in nationals this year, he is placed fifth in right-hand arm wrestlers under 80kg and ninth for left-hand.handed. Although he is nursing a small injury from a his past competition, he said he was not worrying too much about Last Warrior Standing. “Still riding me on the day to day, but it’s come right now — pretty confident I’ll be okay injury wise.” He was excited about for the event, comparing the environment of Invercargill Central to that of a standard competition. “There’ll be heaps of people and that’s something I struggle with, but I like to push into that sort of edge — see myself become stronger and more confident.” He described the rush of adrenaline right before a match, saying he was “vibrating” at nationals. “It was the most adrenaline I’d felt in so long — it was so intense.” • Last Warrior Standing: August 15 at Invercargill Central. Build up starts at noon 12pm with the main event set to take place at 3pm.
