AN ex-Army sergeant has been named Britain’s champion amateur body builder.

Jonathan Fletcher walked off with the title having become involved in the sport just 16 months ago.

The father-of-two, who was an Army physical trainer for 12 years, said he was delighted to have made his dream of following in his bodybuilding heroes’ foot-steps a reality.

As well as a gruelling exer-cise programme, Jonathan had to follow a monotonous diet – eating nothing but rice, broccoli and chicken, every three hours for 17 weeks, cutting down to just chicken and broccoli for the final week.

Jonathan, 33, of Great Harwood, also tightened his skin to competition standard and lost six pounds in one day before the competition in Birmingham by cutting out all liquids for 12 hours.

At 5ft 7ins he had built up his weight throughout the training period from 12st to 13st 4lb and was able to beat the best in the country, many of whom towered above him.

His success in the National Amatuer Bodybuilding Asoc-iation’s (NABBA) British championship comes after he was crowned Mr Pendle at his first competition in May this year.

The former Hollins High School pupil is no stranger to high pressure finals as he was crowned world Jujitsu champion at the age of 16.

He said: “I have always been sporty but never been able to really put on any weight because I have always been so active.

“Weight training was just something I always really wanted to do.

“It’s quite disciplined as well, with the diet and having to be regimented, so it just suits me.

“I’ve really enjoyed it, although I got tempted to eat other things sometimes.

“I’ve really admired people who do well with it – people like Arnold Schwarzenegger really inpsired me.

“I never thought I would do as well as I have, all I wanted was to be able to call myself a body builder.

“When I got there to sign up, there were some big lads and I was convinced that I wasn’t going to do very well at first, but things got better as the competition went on.

“It was between three of us really, but right up to the end I had no idea I was going to win.

“My partner Sarah and my children Jade and Connor have been so supportive and I’ve finally done it.”