13 athletes from the Valkyrie Team tearing up on Home Turf
Alice
5th place for Alice in her second ever competition. Coming off a few weeks of no training with moving into a new place and organising to go off travelling to Bali the day after the comp. She had a solid comp and performed well despite a suboptimal preparation. Yet, she still won the stone event, it must be in the Matthews blood! Massively proud of her as her older brother and her transformation into training over the last year and a half. She’s really turned her life around in terms of fitness and hopefully found something she enjoys and wants to keep up.
Lou Goodman
Lou came 13th out of 14 total athletes in the women’s novice. By just competing this was a massive achievement for her. Lou struggled with even coming to the strongman class for a while due to her mental health, and she’s now done her first comp, and in front of a large crowd! She hit multiple PBs and pretty much finished all the events. 6 months ago this would never have happened. She is invaluable to the Valkyrie team and i can’t wait for her to do more!
Tori
Tori is one of our newest members and already provides the team with a positive energy which is infectious! I don’t think I’ve ever seen her not smiling! Not only that, but she is strong AF! Absolutely smashed the comp and was snapping at Laura’s heels for 1st place. However, it was an amazing achievement to secure the silver in her first competition!
Laura
Laura and I have trained together for 5 years now, which is mad thinking about it. Only in the last 3 months has she come along to Origin Strongman classes and I finally convinced her to sign up to Hampshire’s. She only goes and comes 1st in her first competition! Other than one event she found herself in the top 3 which is always going to bode well when coming to the final standings.
Emily Dodd
Our champion pole dancer came away with the women’s novice bronze! Emily put everything into her prep, and her competitive spirit overpowers any setbacks and won’t give up until she has mastered a technique. She smashed the comp and I really hope she keeps it up and signs up to another!
Britt
Living the furthest away, paramedic Britt still manages to make it to classes around her shift work as a paramedic. She came into Hampshire’s with a great attitude and even took an event win in the Husafell Sandbag carry with a massive 141m. The women’s novice category was super competitive, but Britt came away with 11th.
Danny
Our very own rocket scientist took 3rd in the Men’s Novice U100kg. We’ve had to work hard on technique of certain movements, but Danny’s determination and persistence paid off and his never die attitude kept him in the running for 2nd. If we can get his deadlift strength up he will be a serious contender in the future!
Pascual
Our resident Argentinian cowboy (gaucho) Pascual secured 2nd place in the Men’s Novice U100kg narrowly beating Danny. This man is a machine with any moving event and has previously been let down by his overhead strength. Not anymore! We have worked consistently on improving that and I knew if we could place mid table or above in the overhead event Pasc was in for a shot at the podium.
Matt
Mullet Matt took 2nd in the Men’s Novice O100kg. He had massive support from his mates and again, just like the rest of my clients he won’t give in on any event until the time has run out, especially in front of his mates. Matt was consistent and dominant all day and never dropped out of the top 3 in every event and only missed out on 1st by 1.5 points. Next time he’ll bring back the gold!
Lucy Peaty
Moving onto Sunday for the weight class athletes, Lucy was my only female athlete taking part in a weight category. It took me a while, but I persuaded her to move up from the Novice comp to the U75’s. I think she is now happy I forced her to! Lucy is a very strong all round athlete and her lowest placing was 4th which resulted in her achieving 2nd place in her first ever comp. It was a very strong field and I hope she looks for another competition soon!
Davide
The Italian Stallion! After a stressful BNSF Finals weigh in, Davide started the day with a victory by making weight and being under 90KG. This guy is just a pure power house of Italian passion. He hadn’t dropped out of the top 5 all day and was a serious contender for 3rd. Unfortunately, due to dehydration it was advised he dropped out of the comp and was unable to do the final event, stones. He still placed 6th out of 11 despite this, which is amazing.
Nick
The other athlete I had in the U90’s was Nick. He finished the day in 2nd place which he was over the moon with just holding off 3rd place by a point. Nick has worked tirelessly the last 3 months of this prep seeing his overhead mobility improve, deadlift strength and all round technique with lifts go from strength to strength. His ability to put himself into a dark place and push in any event is a trait I have instilled into all my athletes but Nick has learnt to embrace it!
Alex Miller
Big Alex ‘The Bull’ Miller! 2nd place Britain’s Natural Strongest Man comes back to Hampshire’s Strongest and retained his title in the Open category and claimed the gold. This man is a power house with a bone structure of a silverback. He had a very tough competition with the other guys in his class but he is such an all rounder it’s rare for him to drop many points! Now to watch him go to Hungary to compete for the World’s Natural strongman title in Budapest.
Want to Join the team?
If you’re interested in trying strongman or just need some direction in your training and want a coach please either contact James or book on to an Origin – Strongman class.
James Matthews
