Doncaster man lifts equivalent of an adult horse to be crowned strongest in UK

Andy Lumley, from Carcroft, carried a yoke strapped with 420kg’s worth of weights 15 metres in one of five gruelling challenges at the event in Hatfield, Kent last month.

The 40-year-old, who has been competing in strongman events for nine years, also lifted 320kg in the deadlift and squatted 260kg.

He managed to lift a log weighing 145kg, or 22 stone, over his head and threw four sandbags weighing between 16 and 25kg over a four-metre bar backwards.

“The yoke was really difficult,” Andy confessed.

"Four-hundred and twenty kilograms was a big amount to lift.”

Andy beat 14 other musclemen from across Britain to be crowned UK champion for the first time, having begun lifting in his teens.

He said: "I have worked in gyms pretty much all my life, since I was 17.

"I went to Butlins originally as a lifeguard. Nine years is a long time to work towards something, I started at the beginning and worked my way up."

Andy is one of about 50 members of the Viking Power and Strength strongman club based at the New Bodies gym in Wheatley.

"With me working in a gym normal gym training was like being at work,” said Andy, who retrained as a massage therapist after being made redundant from Doncaster Culture & Leisure Trust, the company which runs the Doncaster Dome, during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Strongman was just a little bit different.

"It's an individual sport but we work together and help each other. For an individual sport, it's really team-orientated."