A 31 year old Fairlie woman has flexed her muscles to become Scotland's strongest woman.

Emmajane Smith, who grew up in Castlepark Gardens in Fairlie, and went to the village primary and Largs Academy, has has ambitions to take part in an Arnold Schwarzenegger inspired international tournament in America, and is hoping for local sponsorship.

Now living in Dalry, Emmajane won Scotland's Strongest Woman competition last month and will be representing Scotland at Britain's Strongest Woman in October.

Emmajane is also a keen horse-rider at Goldenberry Stables in West Kilbride where she has her own horses, and got involved in lifting weights to improve her body strength as she also competes in equestrian events.

Emmajane said: "I have been training for a couple of years in bodybuilding and I have always been told by my trainers that I am really strong naturally and that I should compete.

"I went through to Motherwell 'Hostile Strength and Conditioning', and my trainer Martin Lennox encouraged me to do it. He stated that I could be in the top three in Scotland when I started by training, but when I finished, he was confident I could win it."

Emmajane was over ten points ahead of second place in some stages of the competition as she was put through a series of challenges including deadweight lifts, dumbbell shoulder presses, and running with a sandbag before loading it on a shelf.

Asked whether she could possibly aim for the Commonwealth Games or Olympics in future, Emmajane said: "People have said that to me before but at the moment I am concentrating on power lifting which will improve my deadlift and squad. I am already hitting high numbers and the more power I get, the numbers will soar.

"There is another competition in July to qualify for the Arnolds, an American tournament named after Arnold Schwarzenegger. The qualifying event is in Dunfermline in July.

"I have been weight training for about two years, but was only training for Strongwoman since March, I wanted to be stronger and fitter for riding the horses, before training with Martin Lennox, with Scotland's Strongest Championships.

Emma will be representing Scotland in the UK Championships at Bedford International Athletics stadium in September, and could also qualify for the European finals.

Emma, who trains five days a week, is looking for sponsorship to help her in dream - for more details, email emmajane_smith@hotmail.com

Asked if she could believe that she was officially Scotland's strongest woman, Emmajane said: "I always throw myself into challenges and I just can't believe it, it is funny to think about!"