On Wednesday, March 4, 2009 we reported that ...

A BRAWNY Bankie took on the cream of the country’s powerlifters and won — despite only taking up the heavy duty sport less than a month ago.

Scott Ward, 23, took the title of under-23 champion by lifting more than two-and-a-half times his own weight at the Scottish Open Powerlifting Championships in Duntocher.

The championships came to the Antonine Sports Centre for the first time and Scott competed against a range of lifters from a doctor to a pair of athletes.

The 13-stone muscle man heaved an incredible 225 kilograms, 35 stones, to take the crown.

But the Duntocher man revealed to the Post he had only started power lifting four weeks earlier to try and bulk up.

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Confident Scott said: “To be honest I can probably do a bit better than that. I knew I was quite good and train a lot so I thought I’d enter as I train at the Antonine Centre where it was held.

“I’ve just been training with weight for about three or four weeks — I used to compete in mixed martial arts which I needed to lose a bit of weight for — so I was looking to put that back on.”

The university graduate lifted 140kg in the squat event and 115kg bench press before pulling up the enormous 225kg in the deadlift, and now goes on to the British Championships.