The Warrior - Strongman, Rongo Keene has added yet another achievement to his name after winning the overall title at the 2016 Australia’s Strongest Man Competition at the weekend.
Keene, of Ngāti Pāhauwera, has now qualified with a pro card for next year’s Arnold’s competition in March where the legendary body builder himself Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to make an appearance.
Keene has steadily climbed the ranks of the Strongman world since actively getting involved in competitions.
He has secured a number of titles including WA’s Strongest Man Competition in 2014, Australian Log Lift Champion and Singapore’s Strongest Man Open Champion in 2015. This year he now adds the coveted title of the Arnold Strongman Australia 2016 Australia’s Strongest Man Competition to his tally.
Keene told our Online News team, "The feeling of winning the competition is amazing. It’s taken me 4 long hard years of training to get my body strong enough to lift the weights required, the amount of work over the years has been hard and I was tested physically and mentally."
He went to thank everyone involved in supporting him through his journey, "I would not have been here today if it wasn’t for my team behind me, my gym crew the brothers, my coach Carl Waitoa, people behind me Miha, Jamie, Mark T. Most of all my wife Ange, she’s my backbone, many times I didn’t want to train but she would always tell me go do it. If you don’t someone else is and they will be better than you."
The strength and determination of this talented athlete can be viewed on the following YouTube link
Te Kaea has covered a number of stories on Rongo and his achievements, including the following: