Five years ago, Gavin Bilton was lining up at the Principality Stadium opposite one of Welsh rugby's greats, Shane Williams.
This week, he is bidding to be crowned the world's strongest man. It has been quite a change of direction for the 33-year-old former lock.
Not too long ago, Bilton - nicknamed 'The Bull' - was turning out in the second-row for the likes of Bridgend, Swansea, Newport, Bedwas and his hometown club Caerphilly. It was the latter with whom he reached the final of the WRU National Bowl in 2017, only for Williams' Amman United to emerge victorious. He weighed in at just under 19 stone during his playing days, going up to 26.5 stone for his last two run-outs in the Welsh Premiership with Newport, and now tips the scales at a massive 30 stone.
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As well as his achievements in rugby, he also spent 13 years serving in the Welsh Guards. During that time, he did two tours of Afghanistan and served as a Queen’s Guard outside Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Now, though, the focus is solely on becoming the strongest man in the world. In 2020, he became the first Welshman in 25 years to compete in the prestigious event, which came just three years after packing rugby in and focusing on weightlifting.
Bilton - who stands at 6ft 6ins, has a 64-inch chest and 40-inch waist - previously revealed he eats between six and eight times per day to take in around 8,000 calories - rising to 10,000 when he is competing.
"I’ve changed almost everything in my life to follow my dream," he has said. "I want to push up to 200kg in weight to make myself even stronger. I eat virtually whatever I want and try to get through 8,000 calories a day. When I’m competing I step that up to 10,000. I have about six meals a day and I keep a protein shake by my bed to have if I wake up in the night. If not, it is the first thing I drink in the morning.
“You have to re-fuel all day long and be incredibly disciplined with what you are eating. I’ve had to buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes, get a new bed and new mattress and I’ve even thought about moving into a bungalow so I don’t have to walk upstairs."
Training in recent years has involved pulling trucks at a local hire station and tipping cars lent to him from friends, as well as cycling and rowing. “The gym I go to is totally on board with all the strong man stuff, so they have equipment for lifting all the cars," he said. "In fact, even the people who work there are sometimes willing to let me push, pull and lift their cars. And the events where you’re dragging a car or carrying a dumbbell are my favourite as it reminds me of rugby - and I’ve had fewer injuries doing this than in the Premiership.”
He is recorded as having raised a Welsh record of 460kg when deadlifting, which is the equivalent of lifting a Welsh front row trio of Rhys Carre (130kg), Ryan Elias (110kg) and Tomas Francis (120kg) in one go and still being able to add in Justin Tipuric (100kg).
Bilton's aim now is to follow compatriot Gary Taylor's lead by winning the world title. Former Olympic and Commonwealth Games weightlifter Taylor won the British Strongest Man title twice in the 1990s and won the word title in 1993.
Bilton is fairly well-placed to follow in Taylor's footsteps in that regard. While he has not won a British Strongest Man title yet, with Tom Stoltman holding both that and the world title in recent years, he has won back-to-back UK Strongest Man crowns - becoming the first Welshman to win the title in the process.
The UK Strongest Man event has been running as long as the British event and carries equal status, similar to the differing WBO, WBA and IBF belts in boxing. In the six years before Eddie Hall won the 2017 World's Strongest Man crown, he had taken home the UK title year after year.
So the benchmark is there. And crucially for Bilton, he believes he can reach the very pinnacle.
"Being from the Valleys, I loved playing rugby," he told the Giants Live Strongman YouTube channel recently. "But there's something about this sport. Being the strongest man on the planet is pretty cool. I will make it."
"Rugby was a huge part of my life for so long, as was being in the army, but now I’m on a different kind of mission," he previously told the Welsh Rugby Union. "I'm living my dream and I don’t want it to end until I’m crowned the world’s strongest man. Now I think to myself, ‘if I can go through what I went through in Afghanistan, then lifting a bit more weight than someone else is going to be easy by comparison.’ I use it as a trigger in my mental preparation."
The World's Strongest Man competition began on May 24 and will finish on May 29 at Capitol Mall, Sacramento, California. The six strongmen in each of the five groups clash in five events over three days, with the winner of each group advancing to the final and the second and third-place finishers going head to head in a stone-off.
Those qualifiers will whittle down the 30 competitors to 10 finalists, with defending champion Stoltman and his brother, 2021 European champion Luke Stoltman, having already secured their place with two events left. As for Bilton, his fate remains in the balance with one day of qualifying left to go on Thursday evening (UK time).
He currently sits fourth in Group 4 with 15 points, just two shy of second-placed Maxime Boudreault. With only the wrecking ball hold and stone-off left to come, it looks like being a straight shoot-out between Bilton, Boudreault and third-placed Pavlo Kordiyaka, currently on 16.5 points, for that second-place spot.
Strength-testing events for 2022 includes car walking, log lifting and wrecking ball holding. The final rounds, held this weekend, feature bus pulling, flintstone barbell lifting and power stair walking.
Coverage of World’s Strongest Man is notoriously secretive, with broadcasting taking place at Christmas time in the UK. Every athlete is obliged to remain silent on results until after the TV show airs in December.
So one day soon, maybe even later this year, you might just be sitting down with a leftover turkey sandwich and a chocolate selection box to watch a Welshman be crowned the world's strongest man.
