West Cumbrian teenager becomes first Cumbrian to win strongman title

A west Cumbrian teenager has become the first Cumbrian to secure a British strongman title after taking home first place in the under 17's national finals.

Keenan Pearson, from Maryport, was named British under 17 strongman champion at just 15 years-old at the national final at Kaos Gym in Preston on December 1.

He was the youngest competitor but as the names were being called out, he didn't imagine that he had won - in fact, he thought he hadn't placed at all.

Emma Pearson, Keenan's mum, said: "I was absolutely over the moon.

"I was gobsmacked because he was the youngest competitor in the competition so it was totally overwhelming.

"I think more for him as well because he went down and he wasn't expecting it, he gave himself a goal, he wanted to achieve the top three."

The only other strongman competition Keenan had taken part in was back in October where he placed seventh in the novice category. However, that competition was open to people aged up to 39.

Keenan has been playing rugby since he was six years-old and has previously spent time in the gym but it wasn't until this summer that he started training to be a strongman.

Ben Harrison invited Keenan to train with him and suggested that he would be a good fit for strongman, and things have just progressed from there.

"He's been going to Cumberland Strongman Academy in Workington," said Emma.

"He's been getting one-to-one coaching with Adam Rumney and he's been doing that for about 10 weeks.

"He started in the school summer holidays with Ben but he didn't think it would have gone this far."

The final in Preston involved five stages which included a 70kg log press to see how many reps he could do in one minute, a 180kg deadlift, and yoke over 10 metres where Keenan managed to secure his personal best.

He managed to make the top three in all five events and won the overall competition by four points.

Next up for Keenan is the Cumberland Strongman Academy's charity event in aid of No Rainbows without Rain - SSC on December 21. He'll be trying to beat his deadlift personal best of 254kg.

From there though, he has big plans for the future and wants to join some of the world's more notable strongmen.

"He wants to travel with it, he wants to go to Giant's Live," said Emma.