HAMISH BIDWELL
When a bloke rings you up out of the blue wanting to talk about an upcoming power-pulling competition, you have to scratch your head for a moment.
Did you hear right? Is it a crank call? And what on earth is power pulling?
But when it turns out that they're genuine
and that power pulling is simply the the old fashioned tug of war re-named, then the fog starts to clear a little.
To cut a long story short, 100 pulling aficionados from around the North Island have rolled into town for this afternoon's Hawke's Bay Power-Pulling Championships at Ron Giorgi Park. The competition will be split into three divisions, with the six-person teams vying for the men's open, women's open and men's middleweight titles.
Hawke's Bay will defend the men's middleweight crown in what will be a very even contest, says team member Philip Nelson.
"Teams have come from all over New Zealand, including some real tough ones from Taranaki, Te Puke, Rotorua and Kawerau," Nelson said.
After months of intense preparation, Nelson is hopeful it will all pay off.
"We've done a lot of different training," he said.
"We do a lot of aerobic fitness and we do a lot of stagnant pulling on a board, where you just bust your guts out. We lay down there and pull on the rope for five minutes, then three minutes and then another two minutes.
"As the time reduces, the pressure increases and because we want to defend our title, we've done heaps of training. In Hawke's Bay we've got a men's open, women's open and men's middleweight and we generally train against each other.
"We do have a geared system as well and sometimes get down and pull against the machine."
