SEQUIM – Jesse Marunde, a world-renowned strongman contest competitor who moved to Sequim to be near his young son, died Wednesday following a workout. He was 27.

The cause of death is unknown, and an autopsy will be performed, said DebKelly, Clallam County prosecuting attorney-coroner.

The results of the autopsy will be reported in about 30 days.

At least 100 people gathered on Thursday evening for a candlelight vigil at Marunde Muscle.

Among them was Matt Forshaw, who said his 17-year-old son, Kory, has been training with Mr. Marunde for the past year.

Kory is “still in shock,” he added.

“Jess was like a second dad to him.”

To anyone who’s seen a strongman competition on ESPN, Mr. Marunde was larger than life.

He was a small-town kid who burst into a sport that had been dominated by Europeans, and who dazzled cable-TV viewers by manhandling cars, trucks, enormous tires and 330-pound concrete “Atlas stones.”

To Callie Marunde, he was a sweet guy who treated her with respect.

Soon after she met him in Athens, Ohio, where he was competing and she was a university student, Callie knew he was the one. They were married in March 2004 at Hawaii’s Diamond Head crater.

Callie, herself a personal trainer and competitor in strongwoman contests, gave birth to their first daughter, Jessica Joy Marunde, on June 10.

In Sequim and across the state, friends and fellow strongman competitors reeled at the news that Mr. Marunde had collapsed at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday after a weight training session.

This was the man who took second place in the World’s Strongest Man Competition in China in 2005 – and who orchestrated and won his hometown strongman contest this spring.

During the Irrigation Festival in May, Mr. Marunde wowed about 300 spectators by lifting off the ground the rear tires of a 2,700-pound Hyundai Elantra, hoisting a 330-pound log above his head and flipping a 900-pound tire eight times.