Clayton Faulconer of Fernie recently took gold at a provincial armwrestling championship, and his sights are now set on nationals.
Faulconer, who lives in North Vancouver, was in Kelowna on May 8 for the 2022 BC Armwrestling Championship, and placed first in the master division 188 pound and over left and right arm categories.
“It was hard, it was very difficult,” he said.
He was up against at least 10 other people in his weight class, and he said at leave five of them were over 250 pounds. Faulconer weighs just over 200 pounds.
“I refer to them as monsters,” Faulconer said with a laugh.
“I beat all the monsters.”
He said the competition brought in around 120 armwrestlers total.
“It was big.”
Faulconer has been on a road to redemption of sorts since a 2018 car accident that left him with a traumatic brain injury, and in an induced coma for seven days.
In a past interview with The Free Press, he said he had to relearn how to eat, talk and walk, but armwrestling was like riding a bicycle. He already had a history with the sport prior to the accident, and about a year and a half after the coma, was competing again.
In December of 2021, he flew out to Romania for the World Armwrestling Federation championships, and placed seventh in his weight class. There were about 1,600 competitors total in different weight classes at that tournament.
Faulconer has called armwrestling a “gift from God.”
Now, he has his sights set on the 2022 Canadian National Armwrestling Championships, which will be held in Winnipeg in July.
“That is the next goal for me.”
READ MORE: ‘Gift from God’: Fernie-born arm-wrestling pro makes comeback after life-altering injury
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