A POWERLIFTING pensioner is celebrating after setting yet another world record.

Seventy-year-old Gavin Walker already held the age 70 and upwards world records for the squat and the total lift – the combined squat, bench press and deadlift.

Now he has added the deadlift record to his achievements.

Mr Walker, a former Consett steelworker and physical education instructor in the prison service, lifted 236.5kg on the deadlift at the European Masters contest, held at Pilzen, in the Czech Republic.

He said: “I think a retired person’s got to have an interest. It drives me and keeps me young – keeps my brain, mind and body active – and it’s good for me.”

The married father of three, grandfather of five and great-grandfather of five, who won the Senior Award for Remarkable Achievement at last year’s Northern Echo Local Heroes Awards, trains for between 60 and 90 minutes three times a week.

Mr Walker took up powerlifting in 1968 and has been doing it ever since, apart from a break on the advice of a physio.

Still in good health, Mr Walker, who lives in Newton Hall, Durham, now hopes to return to Pilzen for the World Masters in the autumn.