DORSET strongman Shane Flowers admitted he is “buzzing” after winning the England’s Strongest Man – on his debut.
Flowers trains at Jurassic Muscle & Fitness Gym on Portland and won three of the six events.
His incredible achievement came despite tearing a hamstring in the build-up to the competition, finishing with 84 points overall.
Brother Mitchal was also carrying an injury but overcame the pain to earn fourth, missing the podium by just 1.5 points despite scoring zero in one event.
Shane now has a potential tilt at World’s Strongest Man, although he must first qualify through the Official Strongman Games in Florida this November.
Flowers won a remarkable three events out of six, finishing no lower than seventh.
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Speaking to Echosport, he said: “I’m buzzing. The competition was supposed to be in April but was postponed several times because of Covid.
“Me and my brother, he’s my training partner, he placed fourth as well so he was happy with that.
“We’ve been preparing for about a year. Before that we’ve been powerlifting for seven or eight years, so it was a big debut show to do. It went really well in the end.”
Flowers also spoke of the blow he faced after injuring his hamstring.
He said: “Three or four weeks before, I anticipated I would probably win at least three or four events.
“But I got injured three weeks before, so coming into the competition I wasn’t actually fit.
“I tore my hamstring doing a deadlift, so it was black and blue and I had physio on it.
“It’s usually a really good event for me and I was one of the favourites to win it and luckily I didn’t tear my hamstring any more. I was lucky to get through in one piece.
“Some events didn’t go the way I wanted to, but I still got the result I wanted in the end.”
After injuring his hamstring in a deadlift prior to competing, Flowers shook off any doubts to claim third.
His seventh place came in the yoke, before clinching fourth in the log press.
However, Flowers saved the best until last with three victories to seal the title.
Achieving a distance of 17.5 metres in the 340kg frame carry was followed by hurling five throwing bags, ranging from 18kg to 26kg, over a raised iron bar in 13 seconds.
And the famous atlas stones came next, the lightest weighing in at 120kg and the heaviest 200kg, with Flowers managing to lift all five onto their podiums, finishing the event in style.
Flowers now plans to take time off to recuperate ahead of the Strongman Games.
Flowers wishes to thank fiancé Rachel plus sponsors Strength Shop UK, Xplosiveape, Woodmace, JW Scaffolding, CryoLabs, Nutri-Go, Nordic Botanics and Natty Vegan Gains for their support.
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