A strongman who sustained head injuries in a freak weightlifting accident has died in hospital.

The Daily Mail reports that 47-year-old gym owner Tony Leigh from Tilbury in Essex was  lifting weights on a bench press when the bar slipped from his hand, striking him in the face. Mr Leigh was in intensive care for six days, but died last week in Basildon Hospital.

Mr Leigh ran the Flex Appeal gym in Whitstable, Kent and helped train weightlifters for ‘strongman’ competitions. A former soldier who joined up as soon as he left school, he had worked in security and as a bodyguard for the Dubai Royal Family, before opening the gym 10 years ago with his wife, Angie.

Mr Leigh’s widow was ‘too upset’ to comment on his death. The couple have two children.

Strongman Paul Wood, also from Kent, said: ‘I think it was just a tragic accident and one of those one-in-a-million things.’

Another colleague, Matt Jones, said: ‘You never expect anything as serious as that to happen from an accident in the gym. There is a lot of disbelief at the moment.’

Mr Leigh came second in the South East heat of Britain's Strongest Man in 2005.

A spokesman for Essex County Council said the coroner had been notified of Mr Leigh’s death, but an inquest had not yet been opened.

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