MATTHEW Smyth missed out on becoming Britain’s Strongest Disabled Man by just half a point – but he remains positive ahead of the world championships in November.

‘Panda’ Smyth missed out on the title over the two days of competition to the two-time World’s Strongest Disabled Man, Dave Walsh, but he said he pushed the defending champion all the way.

“I was beating myself up, but the way I'm now looking at it is the two-time world champion beat me by half a point,” Smyth told the Daily Echo.

“So, I made him work for it, so it wasn't easy.”

The first day saw the athletes compete in the log press, the sandbag loading race and the front hold.

Smyth holds an unofficial world record in the log press, so he took first place, topping out at 120kg and opening the competition with an event win.

“The second event was a loading race, which is a ten-metre sprint,” Smyth said.

“You put an 80-kilo sandbag on the wheelchair and push back and load it onto another platform. You do that with heavier and heavier sandbags until time's up.

(Image: IJMS Photography)

“I've never done that event in my life before, and that's where I actually lost some points.

“I came third. I ended up putting a sandbag on the platform. It then fell off.

“I decided to hold my head against the sandbag, so it didn't fall on the floor and then get my hands underneath it to push it back up, because the ruling was, if a sandbag touches the floor, that's your event over.

“It was one of those all hands on deck, headbutt the sandbag, hold it in position and just redo it.”

The third event of the day was the front hold, which he said is ‘worst event ever’, after needing shoulder surgery seven years ago.

But he held 20kg for 52 seconds and secured second place in the event, meaning he finished the day with a 1.5-point lead at the top.

“Day two, going in, I knew I had a big point advantage,” Smyth said.

“It was trying to keep my confidence up there, but not to a point of arrogance.”

The first event of the day was a dumbbell medley.

(Image: IJMS Photography)

“We had a 45, a 50, a 55 and a 60-kilo dumbbell,” he said.

“I think I've got some of the strongest shoulders in the world at this point because I've got unofficial world records in the log press, the axle press, the barbell, anything overhead is mine.

“So I knew going into that that was going to be a big event for me, to the point no one actually picked up the 60.

“[I’m] impressed that I'm the only athlete in my category to actually do that. Then I had a two-and-a-half-point lead over the rest of the pack.”

The final event was the atlas stones run, where athletes wheel their chair between four stones and lift them from one side to the other, with the winner doing it in the fastest time.

Smyth and his coach were aiming for a sub-30 second time, which he said is rare to do, with him completing the event in 27 seconds.

But Walsh showed his class and experience by completing the atlas stones in an ‘insane’ time of 22 seconds, to take the victory in the event and overall.

Smyth said missing out by such a small margin still hurts but that he knows what he must work on ahead of the world championships in six weeks.

“I know where I lost points. I've spoken to my coach up at Map Strength, sent him all the footage of videos. We've gone over it,” he said.

“We know where I've lost points, where we can gain points, we know training points for World Championships.

“We know how we can come back bigger and stronger.”