Sport / Nisbet delighted after winning UK’s Strongest Man in front of home crowd
CAMERON Nisbet says he is “still on cloud nine” after securing a sensational home victory in the UK’s Strongest Man under-70kg in Lerwick on Saturday.
The strongman made it two victories in three years at the competition in the Clickimin this weekend in front of a fervent crowd full of friends and family.
The clinching moment came as Nisbet matched Steve MacDonald in setting a world record 150kg atlas stone lift to cap off the perfect weekend.
Nisbet said he still had not come down to earth of being crowned UK’s strongest man in his weight category for the second ever time.
“The competition itself couldn’t have gone any better,” he told Shetland News on Monday afternoon.
“I feel like I’m still on a high, I’m still on cloud nine. I’m absolutely delighted with how I did.”
Usually athletes – Nisbet included – will arrive at a competition on the day before and will have little time to catch up with each other than at the event.
But this time, they arrived on Friday morning and were able to spend time together spotting puffins, heading to Hillswick for a carvery and visiting the cliffs of Eshaness.
Nisbet said he had been buzzing “since Friday morning” because it had been such a great weekend.
“We were all off in our little world on Friday, so I think we forgot the competition was even on.
“When I woke up on Saturday, I was like, ‘oh, this is real now’.”
Competing in front of a home crowd was “pretty intense”, he said, but he believed it also fuelled him on to victory.
“I dropped the frame in the farmer’s carry and I could hear everyone shouting, so I was like ‘right, I’m picking this back up and squeezing as hard as I can’,” he said.
“Having that support and pressure, you want to perform for them.”
In the first event, the log press, Nisbet came up short in trying to make a 100kg lift – something he said he had managed to do in training.
But he recovered superbly to blitz the competition in the car deadlift, pulling off 10 reps of the 240kg Ford Fiesta.
He sealed victory by lifting a 150kg atlas stone, earning not only a joint world record but first place overall.
Throughout the day the competitors could be seen cheering, fist bumping and roaring each other on. Nisbet said that were as a “real sense of camaraderie” between the field.
“You want to win because you’ve done really well, not because someone else has made a mistake,” he said.
“There’s a very strong sense of community from the group, probably because we all know the gruelling training we have to go through.”
Nisbet said he had heard “nothing but praise from everyone” about the event and Shetland’s hosting of it for the very first time.
“People have gone out of their way to talk to me and thank me, Stuart Moar and Busta Builders for putting it on.
“I think everyone was really appreciative of all the effort that went into it.
“And I think some of the people have left having fallen in love with Shetland a little bit.”
He believes that hosting the UK’s Strongest Man under-70kg competition could help to put Shetland on the map for more competitions.
“I was at the gym this afternoon and there were several people saying, ‘why don’t we have more of these competitions up here?’
“I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t have Scotland’s Strongest Man here.”
For Nisbet now, his attentions turn to competing in the European Natural Strongman event in just six weeks’ time.
He will get a week to rest and recuperate before returning to the gym and preparing to take on the event in the Doncaster Dome.
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