WHITSTONE’S Rob Long will compete in the Britain’s Strongest Man Novice final in Essex on Saturday, writes David Sillifant.

The 27-year-old, who co-owns Woody’s Café, which is situated off the A30 near the Shell Garage at Sourton near Okehampton, only took up strongest man a year ago after joining the gym of former world champion powerlifter, Sean Spillane.

But after winning the South West competition at Martock in Somerset last month, the father of Riley and Ava, and partner of Alana, will compete against at least 30 others for the right to be crowned champion.

Rob said: “I started when I was about 20 and I loved it but I then had a child which changed everything.

“It was only about six years later (last August) that I started again. I was looking on Facebook and came across Sean at SS Powerlifting in Camelford.

“I’ve only been training for just over 12 months and I train four times a week for about two hours each time.

“I was one of 22 guys that entered the South West competition and I came second in that, which qualified me for the Britains.

“Before we got there we didn’t even know we could qualify for the Britains. It was only when Sean told me that I knew.”

At the regional qualifier, which saw the top two go through, Rob competed in five disciplines; deadlifting (200kg), the farmers walk and yolk (both over 20 metres), the log (pressing a weight over your head in a one rep max), a loading event, which consisted of running with two tractor tyres and two 60kg beer barrels for 15 metres each time, and the atlas stones which saw him have to lift a 100kg stone over a four-foot bar as many times as he could in a minute.

With most of his preparation now done, Rob is enjoying a rare bit of time off this week before the action gets underway at the Great Dunmow Recreation Ground.

Again the competition will consist of five disciplines with the kettle bell throw, which sees them have to throw five bells ranging from 10kg to 22kg over a four-metre bar as fast as they can, replacing the atlas stones. However, Rob is refusing to make any predictions.

He said: “I just want to look at each event as it comes and do my best. The weights are heavier but deadlifting is my love and I enjoy the mobile events, but I need to work on my throwing as I haven’t done a lot of it and it’s new to me.

“As we’re getting closer to the competition we’ve been doing all of the events we’ll be doing on the day so it becomes second nature.

“But I’ve got a week off in the build-up to recover and spend time with the family to make sure I’m ready and know what to do!

“Then after the competition, I’ll be trying to build my strength. We’ll go back to the basics, what everyone does in the gym.”

The amount Rob eats and drinks has led to him putting on six and-a-half stone in just over 12 months.

He said: “When I first started training back in August 2017 I was 17 and-a-half stone, now I’m 24 stone.

“I drink three to four litres of Jersey or Guernsey milk a day as well as Complan. I start eating when I wake up and that pretty much carries on until I go to bed. I’m always drinking electrolytes and BCAAs (Branch-chained amino acids), which stop the muscle fibres breaking down. I spend about £300 a week at Tesco, there’s certainly a lot of Tesco deliveries!”

Rob loves being in the gym and hopes the recent success is just the start.

He said: “I just want to improve and hope I don’t get any serious injuries as that’ll finish it. A muscle tear can put you out for 12 months.

“But this is naturally what I’m good at, so I get an easy enjoyment out of it. I love the training and in the last couple weeks we’ve been working on the technical work in preparation.”

By his side throughout is Spillane, and Rob admits that he could not learn from anyone better.

He said: “Before I went in there (Sean’s gym), I didn’t know much about it at all. Some days you feel slightly flat, but Sean’s so passionate and energetic about it, he really spurs you on. He just lives it.”

See next week’s Post to find out how he got on.