Men and women do battle for title of Lincolnshire’s strongest

The event was staged at Sleaford’s Prevail Strength and Conditioning Gym on Melbourne Park, off East Road, organised by the gym’s founder and owner Ben Stacey.

Spread over two days, Lincolnshire’s Strongest contest saw up to 20 women compete on Saturday September 20 and up to 50 men on Sunday September 21 across five carefully designed events to test their abilities.

Most entrants were from Lincolnshire but a few travelled from as far as Wales and Cheltenham.

The competitions were open to the public to watch. Competitors were put to the test in some of the challenges made familiar by the likes of household names Geoff Capes, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and Eddie Hall in televised UK and World strongman events over the years.

Ben said the first event was a deadlift to raise the largest weight they can. This was followed by the classic Farmer’s Walk, carrying a pair of weights over 20 metres. Next up they had to overhead press a variety of four weights within 60 seconds.

In the fourth event entrants got to pull an 11 ton truck over a 20 metre course in the yard outside the gym.

Finally it was the turn of the legendary ‘Atlas stones’. Ben has a full set of these concrete spheres, ascending in size and weight. The competitors will be expected to lift one stone as many times as possible over a 48 inch high bar within 60 seconds.

Ben said: “Over the past two or three years we have seen a decline in the number of competitions in the area. One gym closed last year which had done 12 strength competitions a year. Then another gym at Holbeach held a Lincolnshire’s Strongest contest, which I won, but they won’t be putting it on again after they lost their funding from the council.

"So, from up to 20 competitions a year we are down to two or three, but that fell quite nicely with me opening my first ever gym in Sleaford in October last year. My goal is to introduce strongman and powerlifting events to Sleaford.

"I’ve never hosted a competition before but have been involved in hundreds of them. This has been mainly voluntary and I am putting some of my own money in to make it run smoothly – things like T-shirts and prizes.”

Ben, 32, has been involved in strongman events as a competitor and coach for a decade, since he got interested in working out at the gym at university while studying to be an actor!

He said: “I soon realised I was escaping to go to the gym more and found myself with young actors wanting to get in shape for their parts and I enjoyed helping them.”

Ben, from Kirkby la Thorpe, went into fitness coaching and working in a strongman gym. He has been coaching strength athletes ever since, mostly online, and taking ‘natural’ athletes to international strength and powerlifting events.

He eventually opened Prevail gym wanting to get back to the traditional inclusive atmosphere. He said: “We don’t care which end of the spectrum someone is at. Most gyms these days people just put their earphones on and don’t speak to each other, but that’s not what I grew up in.

"The gym environment has changed, it is a team sport and a community. We do our training then maybe head into town for a coffee. We have barbecues, open days and social gatherings.”