Oleksandr Pekanov

Oleksandr Pekanov is a Ukrainian strongman competitor, born on 21 April 1980 in Chernihiv. After graduating from the Chernihiv State Institute of Economics and Management in 2001 he served as a soldier in the railway troops and from 2002 to 2004 worked at the Ukrainian customs department. Standing 191 centimetres tall and weighing about 185 kilograms, he took up competitive strongman in 2005. In his first competition, the Pojedynek Gigantów, he went head to head with Mariusz Pudzianowski in a deadlift contest and pulled 410 kilograms, equalling the long-standing strongman deadlift world record held by Gerrit Badenhorst. At the 2008 Arnold Strongman Classic he and Benedikt Magnússon shared the hummer tyre deadlift world record at 471 kilograms. He won the 2005 United Strongman Series event in Serbia and placed third at its Moscow round.