A 41-YEAR-OLD Islander hopes to bring a global strongman event to Jersey next year after he was crowned England’s third-strongest man at the weekend.
James Stuart finished in the podium places in the under 105kg man event held in Doncaster and will now go against the best in the UK in July.
He competed against 17 other athletes in six different events last weekend, including deadlifting a car, a lorry pull and mega dumbbell.
The personal trainer, who has been competing in strongman competitions since 2019, said he wants to boost the profile of the sport in Jersey.
‘Strongman is growing significantly in the UK and I would love to grow the sport over here. It is my goal to try and put on a competition in Jersey and I have spoken with organisers in the UK about bringing the World’s Strongest Man competition to the Island next year,’ he said.
‘I have only started looking into it over the past few weeks but time goes quickly and I need to look into arranging a venue for it and getting sponsors, which could help to bring the athletes over. I think it would be a great thing for the Island if we could bring the contest here,’ he added.
Despite starting in strongman only a few years ago, Mr Stuart won the first novice event he competed in. However, he said that a mixture of Covid and injuries has limited the amount he has been able to travel for events.
‘I think last weekend was my biggest achievement as the line-up of athletes was really strong. It felt great to get back to it and I am glad that everything fell into place on the day,’ he said.
Mr Stuart explained that it is difficult to train for some of the events because there is no dedicated strongman gym in the Island.
‘I have had to buy a lot of the strongman equipment myself but there is only so much you can do when you are operating out of your garage.
‘This can make it hard to train for some of the strongman competitions as you can’t practise everything,’ he said.
‘If we had more facilities over here for it, I think we could get a lot more people into it,’ he added.
