A BODYBUILDER trained in Dunfermline has followed in his father's footsteps after being named Mr Scotland in his first year of competing.

Charlie Baird, 52, previously trained as a boxer and spent a decade in the Royal Marines before turning his focus to bodybuilding.

He has now taken gold in the First Timers category of the Mr Scotland competition, held last week at Lochgelly Centre, and will go on to the Mr Britain stage.

The former Woodmill High pupil and Gym 64 member has spent the past 12 weeks growing muscle while sticking to a strict diet of egg whites, turkey and rice, and fish, in a bid to recreate his dad's previous competition success.

Mickey Baird, now 85-years-old, won the same contest more than 10 times during his career.

Charlie explained: "My whole life I've been a boxer, I was a Scottish international and boxed at a very high level, but my father, who is quite famous in Dunfermline, he had a local gym everybody knows about.

"He's been a bodybuilder his whole life and although I was a boxer I've done bodybuilding my whole life but just never competitive.

"My dad won the Scottish title more than 10 times, he also won Mr Britain, Mr United Kingdom, he won everything.

"I made a promise to him that one day I would compete and get myself in shape and get on stage."

And although he received advice from his dad's competition days, it was the expertise of his training partners - Billy Young and Neil Ravenscroft - and mentor Andy Polhill - a former Mr Universe - which he says helped him get into shape.

Still, he says he couldn't have gone through the "horrendous process" without the support of his partner, Leigh Sinclair, who helped to ensure he stuck to his rigorous diet.

"I could never have done it without her," Charlie said. "I'm not a cook and it was her getting up at 5am and separating the egg whites from the yolks and doing all my meal preparations.

"I've been a strict diet for the past 12 weeks and I went from 13 stone to 11 stone 11 pounds and I wasn't carrying much fat so I had to really rip myself down and stick to a really hard training regime to get into the shape I got into.

"Growing up as a kid I used to watch my dad doing it and you get drawn in, but it's funny with these things, unless you actually put yourself through that then you'll never know."

For weeks Charlie, who now lives in Burntisland, woke at 5am for a breakfast of egg whites, before a banana at 10am, several portions of turkey and rice throughout the day, and a fish dinner in the evening.

He added: "All the hard work was horrendous, I'm used to dieting with being a boxer to make the weight but this is completely different, with bodybuilding you've got to diet and not lose any muscle size.

"It's actually a science of getting it right."

He hopes that the "learning curve" of finding what works will help him to improve even further for the Mr Britain contest, set to be held in October of this year.

That teaching continued even on competition day last Sunday, when he couldn't believe his eyes as he watched other competitors gorge on sugary sweets shortly before stage call.

Charlie explained: "When I went to the show everybody backstage was eating skittles and Jelly Beans and all that sort of thing and I was thinking, 'What are these guys doing?'

"I spoke to an older guy and he said an hour before you go on stage, have a Mars Bar and then start having as many skittles as you can.

"That attacks your sugar levels, I never done it but after the show I went for a meal with my partner then came home and she gave me a big bag of Jelly Beans, within an hour every vein in my body popped out.

"As a boxer, once you make your weigh-in that's you, you don't eat or drink until after you've fought, but as a bodybuilder it's completely different."