Clackmannanshire strongman Chris Beetham competes at Britain's Strongest Man 2016 and nearly qualifies for world championships

Coalsnaughton resident Chris Beetham, 28, missed out on qualification to the world championships by just one place when he finished sixth in Britain's Natural Strongman Federation's UK finals on July 31 in Turriff near Aberdeen.

The man, who lived in Tullibody most of his life, previously revealed to the Advertiser how he defeated the odds and came back to sport after suffering a broken back while playing rugby in 2014.

He is now stronger than ever, and managed to complete all six incredibly heavy disciplines at the event two weeks ago. These included deadlifting an around 280kg car twice, carrying a 330kg frame for 20 metres, pulling an eight tonne tractor with a harness and loading a range of Atlas Stones, weighing up to 175kg, onto a podium.

During his recovery from his back injury, Chris met Menstrie physiotherapist Lewis Mitchell at Elite Sporting Performance in Grangemouth, who helped him along the way. Lewis is also a competitive strongman and powerlifter, and encouraged Chris to join him once he could start lifting weights again.

The duo eventually decided to carry on training and competing together and earned a one-two finish, with Chris just a single point behind Lewis, at the Scottish event earlier this year and a gained qualification for the UK championship.

The long recovery “had its ups and downs” for Chris, who originally intended to return to rugby. However, he explained: “Initially I intended a return to rugby, but strongman and powerlifting has so many goals you can set, both short term and long term, and you only rely on yourself to reach the targets so I very much enjoy that aspect.

“I'm now stronger than I ever have been, but feel if I can keep training and eating properly there is more to come, it's definitely a long term process to continue making strength gains.

“If I can keep making little steps then I will hopefully be in a place where I will be competitive at Scotland's Strongest Man Qualifier in February.”

Chris' favourite event is lifting the Atlas Stones. He said: “The event originated in Scotland with local villagers testing their strength hundreds of years ago using natural stones and I see it as the oldest and simplest test of strength.

“Plus I'm pretty good at them. The 175kg stone I loaded at the weekend was the standard of The World's Strongest Man as recent as the mid 2000s.”

He said he can't thank Elite Sporting Performance enough for all the help he has received during his recovery, adding: “I wouldn't have been in able to go about my day to day life pain free, never mind compete in powerlifting and strongman without their help and guidance.”

Chirs will now train hard for next year, when he hopes he can make the top five at the British event and earn his place amongst the world's strongest men.