ESTATE agents have been battling it out for glory in a fitness challenge.

A unique contest has been set up by staff at The Gym in Queen Street, Colchester, to find the fittest estate agent in town.

Last week, estate agents from offices around town were granted free access to the gym and have taken part in a number of challenges to find the fittest.

The contest was the brainchild of David Pickles, assistant manager at The Gym, and his team.

He said: “I have been in the industry for eight years and I got into it through my own enthusiasm to better myself.

“At this time we see a big drop in people’s motivation so we want to use this inter-town competition to get people more motivated.

“It’s some light hearted community fun.”

Following the success of the event, staff will look at holding similar events in the future, including a contest between members of the emergency services.

About 14 different companies took part in the challenge which ran for the week and Mr Pickles said they were keen to take on the competition.

Mr Pickles said: “It was organised to take advantage of their competitive nature and they are quite physically active.

“There tends to be some rivalry as there are so many different companies around.”

There were both men and women’s competitions, including a 5km run, a rowing challenge and strength challenges overseen by personal trainers.

Nutrition talks and seminars also took place throughout the week to raise awareness of keeping fit.

The estate agents were able to use their free passes to go into the gym as and when they wanted and their results were recorded to find out the fittest estate agent in town.

Mr Pickles was excited to see how far they could push themselves.

He said: “There’s a couple of people from each office who were really keen, it’s also about team bonding.”

Estate agents who took part in the contest include Bairstow Eves, Palmer & Partners, Spicerhaart, Fenn Wright and Martin & Co.