'Gladiators Travelator was as hard as childbirth'

A powerlifting preacher said taking on the notorious Travelator on TV series Gladiators was the " joint hardest thing" she had ever done, along with childbirth.

Reverend Rachael Phillips, from Chopwell, near Gateshead, lost in a photo finish in what is believed to be the closest ever eliminator, in the episode aired on 17 January.

The former army captain went head to head with fellow contestant Naomi Church from Birmingham when the show returned for series three, only to miss out in the final event by a fraction of a second.

Phillips said: "It's like the joint hardest thing I have done as well as childbirth. Two births and the Travelator I would put on par."

The mother of two said taking on the final obstacle, a moving ramp with a steep incline, was "brutal".

She said she remembered the crowd "screaming" their names and felt there was "no choice but to go up".

The pair swung through the paper finish boards at virtually the same time, leaving the judges to work out who had got there first.

Phillips, who spent 14 years in the army, said turning to religion "was very much a huge surprise".

She said: "I entered the army as an atheist with no interest at all in faith and I became a Christian on my second tour of Afghanistan."

The ordained priest now leads Magdalene Community Church in her village.

She said she "absolutely" loved her job, referring to it as "a way of life", adding appearing on the Gladiators was topped "only by the release" of a church podcast last week called Beloved Rising.

Known on social media as the deadlifting preacher, Phillips said she plays rugby and goes to the gym at 06:00 as part of her busy schedule.

She said the show was filmed in July and she could not "possibly tell" if she had been invited back as one of the fastest contestants.

"Having had the experience of being on Gladiators, that's a win for me," she added.

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