RUGBY LEAGUE has a new champion in its ranks after London Broncos star Emily Bell won Saturday night’s Gladiators final on BBC One.
Bell, who filmed the final on her 23rd birthday last year, was the youngest ever female to make the final of the show that pits members of the public against super-strength athletes in a series of games that test mental as well as physical powers.
After scoring maximum points, and defeating the Gladiators in the last two regular events, Bell took a six-and-a-half second lead into the final race – the Eliminator.
And while her competitor, 40-year-old Naomi Church, herself the oldest ever female finalist, almost caught up, Bell held on to secure victory.
“There are no words, that was unforgettable,” Bell told the BBC after her victory.
“I don’t think I will fully comprehend for a long time what I’ve accomplished and what I’ve overcome both physically and mentally to hold this heavy trophy in my hands.”
Bell has put much of her success on the show down to coming from a rugby background, which started in union as a 13-year-old, before also picking up league whilst studying languages at Cambridge University and subsequently joining the Broncos.
“Going onto the show with a rugby background helped massively,” Bell added to League Express.
“In the first series a lot of the contenders were netballers or from CrossFit, and no disrespect to them, but they don’t have that contact sport background.
“So having a rugby background, being really physical, brutal and not afraid of contact, means that when someone’s running at you, rather than running away, you actually run back at them. Having that mentality is a definite bonus for the show.
“When you apply you never actually expect that you’ll be one of the ones that makes it and be on BBC on primetime Saturday TV.
“When I first applied I was thinking ‘I’m not going to win’ but put the date of the final in my diary and thought ‘wouldn’t it be funny if I was there?’
“It was such a fun experience, and one thing I loved about it all was that I met so many people that I wouldn’t normally cross within daily life. We all did different sports, live in different places and are generally all very different.
“But I was involved in a show with a great group of contenders, and we’re now all going to be part of that group for life.”
In the men’s final, former Wigan St Judes player Tyler Spence, who was part of England’s under-23s nine-a-side rugby league team at the 2018 Commonwealth Championships in Australia, narrowly lost out on making it a double for the sport.
Image: BBC/Hungry Bear/Graeme Hunter