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Vasyl Virastyuk

Vasyl Virastyuk (Ukrainian: Василь Вірастюк; born 22 April 1974), is a Ukrainian former strongman competitor.Vasyl Virastyuk competed in the finals of the World's Strongest Man contest in 2003 and 2004. He finished third in 2003 behind then-defending champion Mariusz Pudzianowski and runner-up Zydrunas Savickas. The following year Virastyuk won the 2004 World's Strongest Man title, placing ahead of Savickas and Pudzianowski (Pudzianowski would later be disqualified for testing positive for a banned substance).After this victory there was a split in the world of Strongman competition. While some of the competitors such as Virastyuk and Zydrunas Savickas started competing for the IFSA Strongman title (with Savickas winning the title in 2005 and 2006), others such as Pudzianowski remained and competed for the Met-Rx World's Strongest Man title (with Pudzianowski winning in 2005, 2007, and 2008 Phil Pfister in 2006).After finishing 2nd in 2005 and third in 2006, at the 2007 IFSA World Championship in Geumsan, South Korea, Virastyuk defeated the two-time IFSA World Champion Zydrunas Savickas. With this victory he become the first athlete in the history of strongman to win both a World's Strongest Man title and an IFSA World title. Savickas would be the second to accomplish this feat after winning the 2009 World's Strongest Man title in Malta.Virastyuk has also achieved a podium finish on three occasions in three consecutive years (2005, 2006 and 2007) at the Arnold Strongman Classic coming second on each occasion to Zydrunas Savickas. At the 2008 Arnold Strongman Classic, Virastyuk was forced to withdraw due to injuries, and finished in tenth place with only 8.5 points.