I’m a former rugby player and brickie and now the strongest man in Wales

For Jacob Brooke, the hard work doesn’t stop.

The 26-year-old is back on site, and has been hard at graft all week.

As a bricklayer, he’s not exactly a stranger to putting his body through the ringer, but last weekend he achieved an accolade that for the most part would be well beyond even the most hardened brickie.

Brooke was crowned Wales’ Strongest Man after emerging top of the pile in a series of brutal and gruelling events designed to test strength, athleticism and stamina.

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On the Welsh strongman scene, it’s the pinnacle.

Having become one of the competition’s second-youngest ever winner, he admits it’s not yet sunk in.

“I’m buzzing. Absolutely buzzing,” he tells WalesOnline. “I’m getting lots of followers on social media now, lots of messages saying congratulations, and then people getting in touch to do interviews. It’s all a bit alien for me.

“I didn’t really have any expectations on the day. It was a really strong line-up. But after the first event, everything just calmed down and it just went really well from there.

“I won the car-hold deadlift, which is literally just lifting the back end of a car up and holding it for as long as you can. That was the third event, and that really helped push up to the top.”

Brooke, who hails from Barry, has only been involved in the world of strongman for the last two years, having started when he was forced to give up playing rugby for Barry RFC. This is his first major title, and he’s hoping there’s more to come over the next few years.

“It was my mate that got me into it,” he adds. “Nathan Szuchnik. He was Wales’ Strongest Man, and he took me to a training session at a local gym and that’s what got me into it. I just loved it. Loved the equipment. It was just so much fun.

“I was pretty strong anyway so I was quite good at it then when I first started out.

“I played rugby for a bit, but I tore my ACL in my knee. I had surgery on my knee and I never really went back after that. It wasn’t long after that I found the love for strongman and knocked the rugby