Powerhouse Easter Ross brothers back in frame for strongman glory as stones record tumbles

BURLY brothers from Easter Ross will battle it out it front of royalty at a strongman competition in the Highlands tomorrow.

Tom and Luke Stoltman from Invergordon are set for the Mey Highland Games where it's expected that chieftain Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, will be in attendance.

They're involved in the strength athletics and International Highland Games Federation (IHGF) competition which sees Scotland’s strongest men and women battle it out to set a new Ardblair Stones World Record.

Tom Stoltman snatched the ‘King of Stones’ title at Kirriemuir Agricultural Show last month.

However, the competition is being fiercely contested with brother Luke ‘The Highland Oak’ Stoltman, determined to steal the title from his brother at the Mey Games on Saturday. Luke came seventh in this year’s World’s Strongest Man competition in Bradenton, Florida.

Dubbed the worlds strongest brothers, they have proved themselves a force to be reckoned with on a global stage.

Tom loaded all nine stones, including the final stone weighing in at 152kg (335lbs), onto the 1.32-meter-tall barrels in a time of just 22.18 seconds, shaving nearly five seconds off the previous world record set by Laurencekirk strongman, Paul ‘Bad Boy’ Benton.

Meanwhile, Luke placed third (32.94s) with Glencarse man, Janis Skujins, coming second (26.06s) after breaking his own previous record.

The Ardblair Stones event is fully accessible to all and features for the first time at Mey, Scotland’s only adaptive para-athlete Highland Games, promoting equality and diversity.

The Invictus Games Foundation, founded by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex to "harness the power of sport to inspire recovery", has been promoting the event to ex-service men and women around the world, and participants are expected to include adaptive athletes as well as representatives from the Help for Heroes charity

The Ardblair Stones

The Ardblair Stones are nine reinforced concrete spheres ranging in weight from 18 to 152kg (40 to 335lbs). The stones must be lifted sequentially from lightest to heaviest onto whisky butts. The event is judged on time and the number of stones successfully loaded.

The heaviest stone weighs the equivalent of 152 litres of water – the average weight of an adult male giant panda.

The Ardblair Stones is a qualifying event for the IHGF International Highland Games Federation Stones of Strength Scottish National Final which attracts strongmen and strongwomen competing at the highest levels nationally and beyond.

The top two Scottish men and women from the Ardblair Stones Competition 2019 will automatically qualify for the Final. The winners of the Final will have an all-expenses-paid trip to represent Scotland at the IHGF Stones of Strength World Championships in Fefor, Norway in 2020.

The current top four contenders are:

1 Tom Stoltman 22.18 seconds

2 Janis Skujins 26.06 seconds

3 Luke Stoltman 32.94 seconds

4 Paul Benton 36.34 seconds

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