Not by the Playbook - The arm-wrestling champion of Africa

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On this week’s Sportshour, we’re joined by a woman with a claim for having the strongest arm in Africa. Grace Mintah works as a police officer in Ghana but she also happens to be a three-time champion at the African Arm-Wrestling Championship. She tells Caroline Barker about switching from athletics to arm-wrestling, her dream of becoming a “superstar”, and one day winning an Olympic gold medal. The president of the African Arm-Wrestling Federation, Charles Osei-Asibey also discusses the rise in the sport’s popularity.

We also meet Claire Lomas, a former equestrian event rider who was paralysed from the chest down after a horse riding accident in 2007. Since then she’s raised over £850,000 for spinal injury charities by taking on sporting challenges, such as walking the London Marathon using a robotic suit, which she completed in 17 days.

To mark the start of the 110th edition of cycling’s Tour de France, Sportshour heads back in time to 1989 when American Greg LeMond recovered from being shot in a hunting accident to win cycling’s most prestigious event by just eight seconds. The Last Rider is a documentary film which tells Lemond’s story and Caroline is joined by its director, Alex Holmes.

It’s also the start of Wimbledon and apart from the tennis, it’s a competition known for its strawberries. They are grown on a farm in Kent, which has supplied the All England Club for more than 30 years, and Sportshour's Jamie Broughton went down to try them.

Photo: Competitors in action during The 14th Annual CT Fall Classic, Arm Wrestling Challenge. (Credit: Corbis via Getty Images)

Published on Saturday, 1st July 2023.

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