Yell woman crowned second strongest woman in the world

Sophie Kennerley, second from the left, on the podium of the UKNS world finals in Edinburgh with her runner-up trophy. Photo: Alexander Nicol

A 25-year-old from Yell has been left “overwhelmed” after becoming the second strongest woman in the under-57kg weightlifting category.

Sophie Kennerley fought off a cold to take home the runners-up trophy at the UK Natural Strongwoman (UKNS) world finals in Edinburgh on Saturday and Sunday.

“I’m really happy, the last couple of weeks of training hadn’t gone very well, I was failing all my lifts,” she said.

“Then throughout the competition, I was kind of sitting in third place, it was only at the very end that things started to take a turn and I managed to scrape my way into second.

“It’s quite overwhelming,  I keep forgetting that it’s actually second in the whole world, it’s very surreal.”

This comes after Miss Kennerley became the second strongest woman in the UK and Ireland in June.

Read the full story in this week’s Shetland Times.