Former policeman Mike Archer is a world-beating strongman - at the age of 66.

While most men of his age take up bowls, retired chief superintendent Mike Archer is

winning international weight-lifting championships.

Mike, who has lived with his wife, Grace, in Little Common, Bexhill, for the past 15 years after moving to Sussex from London, is capable of lifting weights almost twice as heavy as himself and regularly out-lifts men decades younger.

Earlier this month, the ex-Metropolitan police-

man competed at the

International All Round Weightlifting Association championships in Australia and was crowned the Best Master Lifter. Mike, who now weighs 12-and-a-half stone, managed to lift a 22-stone weight and also break several competition records in his age group.

The accolade was the latest in a string of awards during a career that started in 1952 when, at the age of 19, he was turned down for national service.

He said: "It was a bit of a blow. They said I was medically unfit. They found a spot on my lung and said that I needed to put on weight. I was quite upset, as doing National Service was something I was looking forward to.

"I decided to do something about what they said and build myself up, so I joined a gym."

While at the Twickenham-based gym, Mike liked working out so much he decided to get into serious competition.

In just one year he had not only built his weight up from just ten stone to 11-and-a-half stone, but was also named Britain's most improved weightlifter.

He said: "Perhaps part of my commitment was to show the National Service Board what they had missed, but it was more to prove it to myself."

After joining the police he rose through the ranks to become chief superintendent and continued to win a host of awards in his spare time, including being named Britain's Best All Round Lifter five times.

He says it was his commitment to police work that made it impossible for him to take his sport further.

He said: "When you do night shifts it messes up your training programme. Something like the Olympics would have only been possible if I'd have had a regular nine-to-five job."

But since retiring in 1985, Mike still competes around three times a year and was named the world's best lifter for his age at a competition in Philadelphia, U.S., in 1997.

He said: "There's no reason why I can't carry on. As I get older I can feel myself going downhill, but I wouldn't give it up. In Australia there was someone competing who was 78 and he was still very good."

To keep in shape Mike works out three times a week at the Hanover Fitness Centre, in nearby St Leonards.

He said: "I like to have a bit of fun with those who don't know me, pretending to be a really old man and then surprising them. It often works because to look at me no one

would know I was a weightlifter."

Grace has got used to her husband's hobby. Mike said: "I think Grace appreciates my athleticism, although I don't go around the house picking up the furniture and showing off.

"I suppose she knows doing this is keeping me out of trouble and gets me

out the house at the same time."

The super-fit pensioner has no immediate plans to swap lifting weights for a less strenuous pastime. He said: "The only thing that's likely to stop me is money. How much longer can I, a 66-year-old, go cap-in-hand down the local fishmongers asking for money to lift weights for the world championship? These days it's getting harder and harder to convince people I'm not pulling their leg."

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