World Champion Zydrunas Savickas writes he is skipping the Arnold this year.

In a recent round of e-mails, World Champion professional strongman Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania says he plans to skip the 2009 Arnold Classic, a world-class competition he has won six consecutive times including the 2008 title.

“I want to have this winter to myself,” Zavickas wrote Footballstories. He said he would like to return to Philadelphia for this summer’s Liberty Strongman Classic, title sponsored last summer by supplement king, MHP.

He said he would come to Philadelphia as long as his Eastern Europe buddies Vasyl Virastyuk of the Ukrane, also a world champion and Estonia’s Andrus Murumets, ranked among the best in the world, could come along and compete.

That may be hard apparently because, in a separate e-mail to Footballstories, Murumets reports that Virastyuk may be retiring.

The only man to have won both the “World’s Strongest Man” and IFSA championships was injured at the 2008 Arnold Classic and had to withdraw from the competition. The Arnold Classic is held every year held every year in Columbus, Ohio during the first weekend in March.

He has not been competing since his injury.

Virastyuk, Murumets and Zavickas competed in Philadelphia in 2007 as “Team World.” Team World was upset by Team USA in a two-day event that was part of “Welcome America!” the City of Philadelphia’s annual July 4^th festival.

The competition also took place at the Lagoon Entertainment and Hotel complex and at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium, home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks minor league baseball team.