Stratfords crowned Ireland’s fittest family
Virginia family win thrilling finale.
After a thrilling finale, the Stratford family from Virginia emerged victorious in the final of Ireland’s Fittest Family and are set to use their winnings to go mountain climbing. Having dominated the opening three rounds, they were pushed to the pin of their collar by the Murphy family from Carlow in the final obstacle course but prevailed as they managed to climb to the last ramp marginally faster than their opponents. “I was literally being pulled up by my fingernails,” said Yvonne Stratford who competed alongside her husband Patrick, a dairy farmer, and their twin boys Daniel and Barry.
“It’s all a blur. Our only focus was to get up to the top of that ramp, then when we got there it was surreal, words can’t really describe the feeling. It was really amazing. Every year the ramp either makes or breaks people and it made it for us. We all got up on our first go thankfully because our energy was running out at that stage for sure,” added the occupational therapist. Their coach Donnacha O’Callaghan was a big help in getting them through the event, said Yvonne. “Donnacha had guided us to get up the ramp. He told me, if I could get to a certain point, the boys could get me over the rest. He was good at strategising. He had done it before so it was great to have it.” One of the final events saw the family have to do a wall sit, in which their son Barry set a ‘Fittest Family’ record of just over 40 minutes, beating the previous set by almost eight minutes. Yvonne said he pushed himself to his limits to avoid a sudden death eliminator. “Barry decided that he didn’t want to do an eliminator that evening, so we hoped we’d have enough in the bag to get through. The events take everything out of you. The wall sit is extremely tough, so it was great that we were able to get through to the next round,” said Yvonne. During the in the ‘Hang Tough’ event, Yvonne’s son Daniel put in a memorable performance by alternating hands to preserve his grip strength.
“He stayed on for the longest, it was incredible to watch,” said Yvonne. “Donnacha had told us not to change our grip and to hang on for dear life to get those extra seconds but Daniel had his own plan and it worked to give us a lot of extra time.”
To watch the final, the Stratfords hosted a party where family and friends were kept in the dark about the final result right until the end. “It was amazing to see people’s expressions willing us on, especially for the grand finale. The outcome was a total surprise, it made all the celebrations more special afterwards. When it was finished in September, we had just had a meal on our way home afterwards. We couldn’t celebrate properly because we couldn’t tell anyone about it. We’re delighted that it’s out in the open now.” As well as receiving Ireland’s Fittest Family trophy, the family also got €15,000 in prize money, which Yvonne says will be spent on a family trip in keeping with their fit image. “We’re big into mountain climbing so we said that, if we won, we’d spend it on a mountain climbing holiday, there’s a lot of them around the world we’d love to see.”