A TULLIBODY strongman will compete to be the UK’s strongest man after winning a place at the competition last month.

Chris Beetham travelled to Doncaster to compete in the final eliminator for the UK event on Saturday, April 30.

The Wee County man finished fifth in Scotland’s Strongest Man in 2021 and was invited to compete in the competition along with the third, fourth and fifth winners from each country.

Chris told the Advertiser: "[There were] three events on the day to work my way through against 12 other athletes and after the three events if you were in third or fourth place you were to go and compete in a final elimination event which I won.”

The different events Chris competed in included flipping a 450kg tire for 20 metres and how many times he could deadlift 300kg in one minute.

Chris, who is a part-time structural engineer and strength coach, spends his days sat in front of a computer at work and his nights training at his own gym.

Competing for around six or seven years, Chris thought this was unachievable, describing the people he’ll soon be competing against as ‘superheroes’.

The fight to be crowned the UK’s strongest man will take place at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes between June 3 and 5.

Reflecting on how he found himself competing in these events, Chris said: “It was something I always watched on TV when I was younger with my dad.

“You think: ‘Wow, that’s amazing, that guy’s pushing a lorry’.

“I played rugby before and I had serious injury which led to me stopping.

“I always lifted weights for rugby, always enjoyed that aspect and one thing led to another.

“I started looking at avenues I could go down and six months later found myself in a competition.”

Now, Chris will find himself competing with the kind of people he used to admire as a young boy.

He continued: “It’ll be cool to be competing in front of a big crowd; they’re expecting about 10,000. Between that and the TV it’ll be a new experience for me. I enjoy that aspect.

“It probably does seem unachievable but you just keep chipping away, anything can happen.

“If I was to do well in this and then do extremely well in the Scotland event at the end of the year then it opens up invitations to other competitions which are the route to World’s Strongest Man.

“I still have the vision that I can make it; it never used to be as clear as it is now.”

Visit ultimatestrongman.tv for more information on next month’s event.