A POWERHOUSE from Fairlie has proved she is made of strong stuff - after being crowned Scotland’s strongest woman for the third time.

Emmajane Smith, who grew up in the village’s Castlepark Gardens, sealed her third national title last week.

She only entered her first ever competition in 2017, and has since had a successful spell at the top of the sport that has saw her travel the world.

Emmajane has won titles in France and Hungary and competed for the title of world’s strongest woman in the USA in 2019.

When the pandemic put a halt to competitions, the 36-year-old set up a training base at her home - using scaffolding poles as equipment.

The former Largs Academy pupil explained: “Luckily I had a good set-up outside in my barn and added to that so I had the ability to keep going at home.

“I didn’t have a barbell though so I used an old piece of scaffolding pipe to put my weights on so I could continue dead-lifting during the lockdown.

“After lockdown I was one of the 16 athletes to be invited to compete at the UK’s Strongest Woman competition, which was recently shown on Sky.

“This was a huge move for the sport and to be a part of it was incredible, especially after the pandemic.”

After taking the title of Scotland’s Strongest Woman in 2017 and 2019, Emmajane sealed her third national title just last month.

The strongwoman had to lift logs of over 85kg, carry Atlas stones weighing up to 130kg and deadlift up to 200kg.

She says moving up a weight class gave her a bigger challenge - but insisted that this victory was the sweetest of all.

She explained: “This time I competed in the heavyweight class when I previously competed as a middleweight.

“I wanted the extra challenge against the bigger girls and I wanted to test my strength as the weights involved are much heavier.

“To win Scotland's strongest woman for the third time, and to do it in the open weight category, felt better than any other victory.

“I’ve worked really hard over the last fiver years, trained consistently through the pandemic, recovered from injuries and made many sacrifices along the way, and to take this title made it all worthwhile.”

Emmajane has qualified for the prestigious World’s Strongest Woman 2022 competition in America and is now looking for sponsors to help get her there.

If anyone would like to support her, email Emmajanesmith60@gmail.com