Two Scottish brothers are set to go head-to-head in a bid to be crowned Britain’s strongest man.
Luke and Tom Stoltman - who weigh a combined 50 stone - have won the Scottish accolade a combined seven times, but will now clash across 12 events as they join ten of the best competitors from across the UK at the national finals in Sheffield this weekend.
The pair, who consume around 20,000 calories a day, will compete across five gruelling events including log-hoisting and lifting the iconic Atlas stones.
READ MORE: Gregor Townsend names six uncapped Scotland players
The brothers, from Invergordon, train together six days a week and have linked up with former World’s Strongest Man champion Eddie Hall in preparation for the finals.
However, both have admitted any brotherly love will be left in Ross-shire as they target podium finishes in the competition.
Younger brother Tom, 25, told Mirafit: “Luke is a hundred per cent my biggest competition, I want to become one of the best in the world.”
Luke, 35, added: "When we're in that competitive zone he's another athlete, but at the same time he's still my baby brother, so I want to see him do as well as he can. For me it's pride, I have a great deal of pride watching him compete."
The event is expected to be hotly contested after reigning champion Graham Hicks opted not to defend his title.
World’s Strongest Man competitor and Harlequins rugby coach Adam Bishop, record-breaking powerlifter Luke Richardson and fellow Scottish athlete John Pollock represent a strong field in the competition
Tom placed third at the event last year and is hoping to reclaim a place on the podium.
However, Luke admitted he is aiming to become the first Scottish winner of the event since 1995.
READ MORE: Scottish boxing champion Josh Taylor to fight Apinun Khongsong in first WBA and IBF title defence
He said: “I’m trying to become more full time as I currently work 6 days a week. I am really hoping that this year I can push on.
“I am aiming to win the competition, I want to try and break world records and be one of the world’s best.”
Tom added: “Obviously I want to win. The field of athletes is very strong this year, but I believe myself or Luke will be taking that crown home.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here