AS a schoolboy Kevin Goodwin was so sick of being knocked over on the rugby pitch that he decided to train in his dad's gym.

And now, after 15 years of body-building and keeping fit, Kevin has the physique that could land him a place on the front of a best-selling men's magazine.

Thousands of men entered Men's Health magazine's cover model competition, by sending in a snap of themselves.

And now Kevin is one of just 14 finalists who are still in with a chance of winning the top prize.

"I've known about the competition for a few years, but I've never got round to entering," said Kevin, aged 28, who lives in the city centre.

"I've been training for 15 years and this was a way of proving to myself how far I have gone.

"They are looking for a regular guy who is in good enough shape to be on the front of a magazine.

"When I entered I said to myself that I would be really happy just to get to be one of the finalists, but then I got through and now I want to win."

Weights

Company director Kevin, who now runs petrol stations and a construction company, started to lift weights when he was just 13-years-old.

"I was a small kid at school," said Kevin. "I went to a school that played a lot of rugby and I would get flattened on the rugby field.

"That was when I discovered by dad's room of gym equipment. Then when I was older I found that I was bigger than half the rugby team."

In recent years Kevin's training regime has been more about keeping fit and healthy rather than bulking up his physique.

And keeping fit also means keeping to a careful diet - eating every two or three hours and avoiding junk foods.

"I used to think that bigger was better and used to train to become as big as possible," said Kevin.

"Nowadays I try to keep fit; I go jogging and skipping and use cardio equipment. I still work out six days a week.

"Freezer bag"

"I take a freezer bag of food to work so I eat perfectly. I don't eat junk food. I rarely drink and I am very nutrition conscious.

"I eat a lot f fruit and a lot of green vegetables and I don't eat too much bread. I eat chicken, fresh fish, steak a couple of times a week and I don't eat many sugars."

Photographs of Kevin and the other 13 finalists are currently on show at the Men's Health magazine website, where users are being asked to vote for their favourites.

The result of the public vote will then be considered by a team of judges.

And the winning entrant will be chosen for the cover of the magazine's September edition.

Kevin hopes that success in the competition could even open doors to the world of modelling.

"I have always fancied modelling, but I have never had the nerve to go for it," he said.

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