Muscling in on Big Apple

Black Country fitness trainer will be flying the flag for Britain when she competes in the world bodybuilding championships in New York next month.

Dawn Sutherland, who offers personal training at Next Generation fitness centre in Pensnett Road, Brierley Hill, already holds the Miss Britain title and is now gunning for the world crown at the Night of the Champions event in the Big Apple.

Dawn, who is 37, first took up bodybuilding when she was 16, and also does modelling and television work.

She said the British still had the stereotyped image of female body builders as being big and muscle bound, and hoped she could show people this was not always the case.

"People have this image of female bodybuilders being great big girls, but I want to show people that you can have a good body and still look feminine," said Dawn, who lives in central Birmingham. Dawn has also lived in Italy and Jamaica.

She became interested in bodybuilding when she was a cheerleader for the Birmingham Bulls American football team.