York's Rob Dixon has muscled his way into the final of the Britain's Strongest Man competition.

Millions of BBC 1 viewers last night saw the 37-year-old become one of the two qualifiers from his heat in Minehead, Somerset, by winning his final event.

One of the pre-event favourites, Dixon, at 5ft 9in the smallest competitor, finished second overall, three points behind Formula 1 racing engineer Marc Iliffe who totalled 24 points from his five events.

Ninteen-stone Dixon, who made it all the way to the final of the World's Strongest man will be hoping to repeat that feat when the globe's giants of strength go head to head.

Updated: 11:00 Thursday, August 23, 2001