The 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman & Man competitions took place on May 27-29, 2023, at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England. The women’s event gathered the eight greatest Strongwoman athletes from the United Kingdom who battled for the top place over five events. Although it was a very tight race to the top, Rebecca Roberts managed to win the competition in the final event.
The 2023 UK’s Strongest Man competition was taking place at the same time as the women’s event. However, Paul Smith made it look far less competitive due to his dominance.
2023 UK’s Strongest Woman Leaderboards
From event one, it was clear that the competition was a two-woman race between Rebecca Roberts and Lucy Underdown. These two women switched between first and second place with every event, but Rebecca won by just one point margin in the end.
Lucy Underdown, despite missing out on the victory, still walked away satisfied from the 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman competition. The reason for this is her new Kratos Bar Deadlift World Record of 305 kilograms (672 pounds).
- Rebecca Roberts — 38 points
- Lucy Underdown — 37 points
- Katie Smith — 19 points
- Izzy Tait — 17 points
- Sarah Reynolds — 16 points
- Claire Myler — 13 points
- Gemma Moore — 12 points
- Nadine Guy — 7 points
2023 UK’s Strongest Man Leaderboards
Paul Smith won the first three events of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Man competition, making his final two events a smooth sail to victory. He ended up with 4.5 points more than the second-place finisher, Matt Dimond.
- Paul Smith — 33 points
- Matt Dimond — 28.5 points
- Callum Crozier — 26 points
- Andrew Flynn — 23.5 points
- Chris Beetham — 20 points
- Louis Jack — 19 points
- Cillein Groom — 16 points
- Scott Milne — 14 points
Related: 2023 Arnold Strongwoman Classic Results — Victoria Long Victorious
Strongwoman Event Recap
Husafell Stone Carry
The first event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman competition made the competitors lift a heavy stone and carry it for the maximum distance possible. Rebecca Roberts had a perfect start to the competition, having won the event with a distance of 52.30 meters.
Lucy Underdown finished in second with 39.80 meters, while Katie Smith fell a few meters short and took third.
- Rebecca Roberts — 52.30 meters
- Lucy Underdown — 39.80 meters
- Katie Smith — 35.90 meters
- Gemma Moore — 29.60 meters
- Claire Myler — 21.90 meters
- Nadine Guy —14.30 meters
- Sarah Reynolds — 12.25 meters
- Izzy Tait — 11.95 meters
Block Press
Moving over to the second event, the athletes had to lift a very heavy block and shoulder press it for multiple repetitions. However, six of the women were not able to perform even a single repetition.
The two women who did manage to successfully perform in the second event of the competition were Lucy Underdown and Rebecca Roberts. Lucy came out on top with five reps, since Roberts performed one rep less.
- Lucy Underdown — 5 reps
- Rebecca Roberts — 4 reps
- Claire Myler — 0 reps
- Katie Smith — 0 reps
- Sarah Reynolds — 0 reps
- Gemma Moore — 0 reps
- Nadine Guy — 0 reps
- Izzy Tait — 0 reps
Truck Pull
The third event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman was the Truck Pull, designed to test the speed and endurance of the athletes.
Rebecca Roberts was once again the greatest performer, having finished the course in just 22.69 seconds. Lucy Underdown once again came just short, finishing less than one second behind Roberts.
- Rebecca Roberts — 22.69 seconds
- Lucy Underdown — 23.47 seconds
- Claire Myler — 30.37 seconds
- Sarah Reynolds — 33.06 seconds
- Izzy Tait — 35.56 seconds
- Katie Smith — 35.62 seconds
- Nadine Guy —12,40 meters
- Gemma Moore — 6.80 meters
Max Deadlift
The penultimate event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman also turned out to be the most interesting one, as the athletes had to deadlift as much weight as possible on a Kratos bar deadlift. The Kratos barbell is made to be extra bendy, making the lift look even more epic.
There was no chance that anyone would beat Lucy Underdown who set a new World Record of 305 kilograms (672 pounds). The next closest competitor, Rebecca Roberts, ended up deadlifting 35 kilograms less than Lucy.
- Lucy Underdown — 305 kilograms — World Record
- Rebecca Roberts — 270 kilograms
- Izzy Tait — 260 kilograms
- Katie Smith — 240 kilograms
- Gemma Moore — 240 kilograms
- Claire Myler — 240 kilograms
- Sarah Reynolds — 220 kilograms
- Nadine Guy — 200 kilograms
Related: 9 Weeks to a Bigger Deadlift Program
Watch Lucy Underdown’s deadlift here:
Sack Throw
The final event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman was the Sack Throw. It featured a series of progressively heavier sacks with the goal of throwing all of them over a bar as quickly as possible.
Rebbeca Roberts and Lucy Underdown had identical points going into this event. So, whoever performed better would win the competition overall as well. However, Lucy was not even close to Rebecca Roberts who threw all five sacks in just 19.61 seconds.
- Rebecca Roberts — 5 in 19.61 seconds
- Lucy Underdown — 5 in 27.71 seconds
- Katie Smith — 4 in 51.56 seconds
- Izzy Tait — 3 in 19.44 seconds
- Sarah Reynolds — 3 in 20.40 seconds
- Claire Myler — 2 in 10.40 seconds
- Gemma Moore — 2 in 14.77 seconds
- Nadine Guy —2 in 58.60 seconds
Related: Lucy Underdown Pulls a 302.5-kg (667-lb) Unofficial Strongwoman Deadlift World Record in Training
Strongman Event Recap
Super Yoke
Paul Smith won the Super Yoke event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Man competition by carrying the massive weight across the course in just 23.60 seconds.
- Paul Smith — 23.60 seconds
- Matt Dimond — 25.96 seconds
- Scott Milne — 27.10 seconds
- Cillein Groom — 27.40 seconds
- Chris Beetham — 31.70 seconds
- Andrew Flynn — 33.30 seconds
- Louis Jack — 36.13 seconds
- Callum Crozier — 6 meters
Incline Log Ladder
Moving onto the second event, the athletes found themselves faced with five progressively heavier Logs. Paul Smith was once again the fastest to lift all five, doing so in just 71.02 seconds.
- Paul Smith — 5 in 71.02 seconds
- Matt Dimond — 5 in 73.20 seconds
- Louis Jack — 4 in 37.17 seconds
- Chris Beetham — 4 in 48.64 seconds
- Callum Crozier — 4 in 59.30 seconds
- Andrew Flynn — 3 in 22.74 seconds
- Cillein Groom — 3 in 35.04 seconds
- Scott Milne — 3 in 38.14 seconds
Silver Dollar Deadlift
After two timed events, the third event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Man was focused on one rep max in the Silver Dollar Deadlift. Paul Smith claimed his third consecutive event win with a pull of 470 kilograms.
- Paul Smith — 470 kilograms
- Callum Crozier — 455 kilograms
- Andrew Flynn — 455 kilograms
- Matt Dimond — 440 kilograms
- Louis Jack — 400 kilograms
- Chris Beetham — 375 kilograms
- Cillein Groom — 375 kilograms
- Scott Milne — 375 kilograms
Bull Ring
The penultimate event of the 2023 UK’s Strongest Man competition was definitely unique and interesting. The athletes went out in pairs and grabbed opposing ends of a huge metal ring. They then tried to pull eachother out of an outlined playing field with the winner claiming some points. Callum Crozier and Matt Dimond shared the top spot with 7.5 points each.
- Callum Crozier — 7.5 points
- Matt Dimond — 7.5 points
- Cillein Groom — 6 points
- Andrew Flynn — 5 points
- Paul Smith — 4 points
- Louis Jack — 3 points
- Scott Milne — 2 points
- Chris Beetham — 1 point
Cerberus Steps From Hell
Although this event was similar to the traditional Power Stairs, the athletes at the 2023 UK’s Strongest Man first had to perform a very long duck walk before reaching the stairs. Once again, the goal was to complete the course as quickly as possible and Chris Beetham did it the fastest with a time of 33.28 seconds.
- Chris Beetham — 33.28 seconds
- Callum Crozier — 36.24 seconds
- Andrew Flynn — 36.76 seconds
- Paul Smith — 43.98 seconds
- Louis Jack — 46.82 seconds
- Scott Milne — 70.52 seconds
- Matt Dimond — 87.75 seconds
- Cillein Groom — 3rd step
Related: 2023 WSM Results
The UK’s Strongman and Strongwoman scene is evolving with each year, and this was proved at the 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman & Man competitions. Apart from an incredible performance from Rebecca Roberts, we also got to witness the heaviest Kratos Bar deadlift in women’s history from Lucy Underdown. On the other hand, Paul Smith displayed a masterclass in a series of unique Strongman events.
Featured image credit: cerberus_strength/Instagram