Scot Tom Stoltman retains World's Strongest Man title

Tom Stoltman competing in the event's bus pull

Scotland's Tom Stoltman has retained his World's Strongest Man title.

The 28-year-old, 6ft 8in, 397lb (180kg) athlete from Invergordon won the competition at Sacramento in California.

Stoltman became the first Scot to win the title when he was crowned champion last year.

He said critics wrote off his chances of winning again because he travelled to Spain to see Rangers in the Europa League final days before the event.

Stoltman told BBC Scotland it felt unbelievable to retain the title.

He said: "I kept a cool head, was chilled out and calm and treated it like a training session."

Stoltman is only the second GB athlete to win the title twice

The football fan added: "People had written me off because I went to see Rangers.

"I use Rangers to get away from my sport. If I hadn't been in Seville I would have been in the house kicking myself and been stressed out."

He will return to his boyhood interest in football when he plays for the World XI FC in Soccer Aid next month. The event created by singer Robbie Williams raises money for Unicef.

Stoltman said he would be happy to get any footballing advice from Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst ahead of the game.

Stoltman said he would happily take footballing tips from Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst

The Scot is the 10th athlete to win the World Strongest Man title twice and first to achieve consecutive titles since 2016.

He is also only the second Great Britain (GB) athlete to win the title twice - the last was Geoff Capes.

The Scot won his second world title in a series of events held from 24-29 May.

Stoltman, who was competing for GB, won the title the day before his 28th birthday as he overcame leader Oleksii Novikov in the final two rounds of competition on Sunday.

Martins Licis, of the US, took silver on a tiebreaker over the Ukrainian in Sacramento.

Living with autism

Novikov won three consecutive events - the deadlift, Flintstone barbell and bus pull - only for Stoltman to overtake him in the power stairs before he sealed victory after his speciality event, the Atlas Stones.

The last strongman to win consecutive titles was USA's Brian Shaw in 2016.

Stoltman has often spoken about living with autism, saying that when he was a teenager he was unable to go outside on his own.

His older brother is five-times Scotland's Strongest Man Luke Stoltman.

They are the only brothers in history to reach the finals of the World's Strongest Man.