ANASTASIA PAPAS: SCOTLAND’S STRONGEST WOMAN 2023 RECAP
ANASTASIA PAPAS
“Being a part of Scotland’s Strongest Woman isn’t like anything I have ever experienced before, it’s very much a full on production set up with cameras, a crew and all in front of a huge audience.”
INTRO
After the 2023 Ultimate Scotland’s Strongest Woman competition which took place on July 2, 2023, in Grangemouth, United Kingdom, I caught up with my good friend and nutrition client Anastasia Papas to see how she got on at her first ever Scotland’s Stongest Woman competition which ran alongside Scotland’s Strongest Man won by Louis Jack. Scotland’s Strongest Woman featured eight strongwomen who competed in the following five events - Duck Walk for Time, Max Deadlift, Incline Log for Reps, Anvil Hold for Time and the Atlas Stones - during the single-day competition. Here’s what Anastasia had to say.
“Moving up in the strongwoman community is somewhat of a daunting experience. Having only competed locally in Ayrshire’s Strongest, Paisley’s Strongest and Stirling’s Strongest, this was the year that I decided I wanted to advance to the higher caliber of competition. While qualifying for Scotland’s Strongest Woman, I developed a few injuries, nothing major but it still had a big impact on my training. Dealing with these led to thoughts of pulling out of the competition as I didn’t feel like I could bring my strongest performance to the best that Scotland has to offer. All that aside, an opportunity like this doesn’t come around too often so I decided I’d jump straight into the deep end, sometimes pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone is the only way to grow and progress.”
“Being a part of Scotland’s Strongest Woman isn’t like anything I have ever experienced before, it’s very much a full on production set up with cameras, a crew and all in front of a huge audience. The stadium was sold out and having only ever competed in small comps before, this already made me extremely anxious. I’m not a fan of the spotlight in general so being in front of a massive crowd like this and even having to attend interviews was a whole new and nerve racking experience for me.”
DUCK WALK
“On a normal day no one particularly likes Duck Walk, it was raining and the arena was wet and slippery. Duck Walk makes me very nervous, not because of the weight but the because of way you have to waddle with it.”
DUCK WALK FOR TIME - 6TH
“The first event of the day was to be Duck Walk. On a normal day no one particularly likes Duck Walk, it was raining and the arena was wet and slippery. Duck Walk makes me very nervous, not because of the weight but the because of way you have to waddle with it. If you go too fast you fall, if you go to slow your time runs out, it’s a tricky one. I was up in the first pair and the lanes were soaking and walking with a 100kg digging into your legs isn’t my idea of fun. When it came to the step I struggled to get it back down after I placed it up on it so I had to just ditch it to get down. I tried to keep going but at the point I was gassed.”
MAX DEADLIFT - 7TH
“Moving on to The Deadlift, I was still pretty nervous at this point, my best Deadlift was 177.5kg in a powerlifting competition and here I had to open with 180kg, 2.5kg above my max. I had to pull this one out of the bag and give it all of what I had. It wasn’t textbook form but I never hitch my Deadlift and when I locked it out I thought to myself I could squeeze about 10kg more if I had to, but it was 20kg jumps and with my SI joint injury I knew it wasn’t going to happen so I called it. Either way I was delighted with my 180kg PB.”
INCLINE LOG FOR REPS - 8TH
“This is the one I was dreading, unfortunately for me, I’m really tall and my arms are really long so overhead for me is the worst event imaginable. That being said I’m pretty good at The Axle and this event was actually changed from The Axle to The Incline Log which is not ideal. I knew from the start I would zero this event, overhead for me has always been a weakness and when you pair that with injuries it was expected. It is what it is, I’m not disappointed, I just didn't want to zero any events.”
ANVIL HOLD FOR TIME - 1ST
“Next up was the Anvil Hold. I knew I had to redeem myself after the last event. I'm good with any type of grip event because I have always had a decent grip, but on the flip side I've never even touched an anvil before so I didn’t know how it was going to go. I had kind of expected that it would go well, just not that well, I definitely didn’t expect to win. Beating two of Scotland’s Strongest Women in this event really helped me dig deep for the last event and also put me back on the board.”
ATLAS STONES - 4TH
“Stones are another good event for me, I train them consistently and have always loved doing them. This event was for time and while I was still riding the high if the last event win, I knew I would do well, however what seemed like milliseconds after the timer went off, out of the corner of my eye I could the girl on the other side of the stone wall flying through them so that put a rocket up my ass. Four stones in 24 seconds but that 130kg stone just wasn’t coming on the day, due to fatigue it wasn’t a surprise.”
ATLAS STONES
“Stones are another good event for me, I train them consistently and have always loved doing them. This event was for time and while I was still riding the high if the last event win, I knew I would do well.”
OUTRO
“After only changing from crossfit to strongwoman no more than two years ago, I’m still relatively new to the strongwoman scene and it really amazes me to see how fast all of us have progressed with a little bit of time and consistency. At the end of the day, if you enjoy what you do and you get comfortable with pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone every now and again, your confidence will grow both as an athlete and an individual. I’m glad I took the plunge, placing 6th with one event win was still a great experience for me and I know what I have to do to come back stronger next year.”