TWO Mandurah weightlifters will attempt to out-lift the rest when they compete in the National Weightlifting Championships in Melbourne next weekend.
Roxanne Walker and Adam Wanstall qualified to represent Western Australia after impressing at state level.
It will be the second time Walker will compete at the national competition after placing inside the top 10 last year.
She said she hoped to place in the top three in Victoria in the A-class under 63-kilogram division this year.
With ambitions of competing at the Olympic Games, the determined athlete said she had come a long way after struggling to lift any weight only a few years ago.
“I saw some girls training near the beach with kettle bells,” she said.
“They said you should come down to the CrossFit gym and train.
“I could hardly lift the bar when I started, I was pretty light.”
Walker said she soon fell in love with weightlifting because she wanted to see what her body was capable of.
“There are some good role models for females [in weightlifting]; it shows that you can be a strong woman,” she said.
For Wanstall, weightlifting was more of a bi-product of Crossfit, with the 26-year-old set to compete for the first time at national level in the B-class 85-kilogram category after taking up weight lifting last year.
A coach at CrossFit Mandurah for the past year, Wanstall said his main goal was to make the CrossFit Open top 50 next year but was still hoping to make the top 10 at the weightlifting championship.
“I’m competitive in everything I do,” he said.
He said in CrossFit, people must have a high level of fitness and strength which translated to weightlifting.
The couple said weightlifting was something everyone could get into.
“Definitely all levels and all ages can give it ago,” Walker said.
“You can even scale it down to a broomstick and work on technique,” Wanstall said.
At the competition the pair will have three attempts at both the snatch and the clean and jerk.
The best weight for each will be added together for an overall score with the winners invited to the World Championships.
The pair thanked CrossFit Mandurah and Beast Mode Athletica for sponsorship.
