The 17-year-old former Alford Academy pupil who is studying fitness, health and exercise at college in Aberdeen, won the Under 20s category in the British Natural Bodybuilding Foundation ( BNBF) competition held in front of 600 people at the SECC in Glasgow.

This was the first time Craig had entered a bodybuilding competition and this week he was still celebrating his success. He has been training and eating a strict diet for the past two and a half years. He had planned on competing in the BNBF Scottish Championships for about a year.

Craig said: "My diet started 17 weeks out from the show. You want your body to be as muscular as possible with as little fat, to show off the definition of your physique. I carefully constructed a diet plan that I would be following, based on a moderate fat, low carb, high protein approach."

"I ate seven meals a day, including tuna, chicken, salmon, oats, sweet potatoes, wholemeal bread, brown rice, peanut butter and vegetable, and measured everything."

" For the last five weeks of my preparation, the only source of carbohydrates that I ate were oats, sweet potatoes and vegetables."

"The sacrifices I made in the 17 weeks were quite tough. The first eight weeks were not so bad but for the last six I had no energy to do anything other than train and eat. I got up, had breakfast, made all my meals for the day, trained, then just zombied though the rest of the day. My girlfriend, Saoirse, supported me and always gave me motivation to keep on the diet when I was finding it hard."

"Winning the competition and getting a big trophy is great. Having a body like I do is also good, but it' s about much more than that. It's about the challenge, and the rewards you get that make it worthwhile. Bodybuilding is my hobby and my passion and has taught me how to set a goal and let nothing get in my way of achieving it - not just bodybuilding but in everything I do.

"If you want something, if you work hard enough, you will get it. That's what bodybuilding has taught me."

Craig will take part in the BNBF national finals in October.