UK’s Strongest Man: Lancing man sets his sights on the top three

He may be 6ft 2in but the father-of-two is one of the lighter competitors in the Ultimate Strongman pack and in the past, has considered himself the underdog.

Now, Andrew, who lives in Lancing, has taken part in the UK’s Strongest Man competition three times and having achieved 7th place this year, it has spurred him on to go even higher.

He said: “For the past six years, I’ve been working my way up from the regional heats. The latest was at the end of May and I finished seventh, which is the best I’ve ever done.

“It’s given me hope that I can go all the way and now I’m setting my sights on finishing top three.”

The 29-year-old is a full-time storesperson at Southern’s Brighton depot. He joined the railway eight years ago and his role involves checking in faulty or damaged material that comes off the trains to replace it with new.

Andrew said: “I used to play professional rugby for Worthing but it was a huge investment of time and I couldn’t commit.

“At the time, my local gym had all the equipment for Worthing’s Strongest Man competition, so I started training with it and thought ‘I could be quite good at this’ – so I went for it and entered myself into the event.

“That was back in 2015. It was my first professional competition in that sort of field and I won! After the regional heats, it goes to southern qualifiers, which qualify you for England’s Strongest Man and then the top three or four competitors from that round go on to battle for the UK’s Strongest Man title.

“Once I did that first competition, I was hooked.”

Events include an 8,500kg truck push, a brick lift, carry and drag medley and the Viking press.

Andrew’s favourite event is the Atlas stones, where huge spherical stones have to be hoisted on to plinths.

He says any form of exercise is a good habit to get in to and he is always happy to help colleagues with advice.

He said: “They’re always asking me what type of equipment they should be using and what type of exercises are best. I don’t mind, I’m happy to help.”