Achievements

My first competition was a real leap of faith as I had never competed in any form of sport before. However, I really enjoyed the experience, small sports are very friendly and there is a real sense of satisfaction to be gained from seeing progress and winning a few medals. The training helped me cope with a stressful job, when you are lifting you need to focus on where the weight is and nothing else.

Kettlebell sport involves lifting a kettlebell for 10 minutes as fast as you can. You cannot put the kettlebell down and there are few places to rest so it can be very challenging. There are three categories: snatch only, clean and jerk and biathlon (a jerk set followed by a snatch set). In this picture I am snatching 16kgs.

I soon became proficient and began to represent England in 2014, part of the first English team to compete abroad. Here I am in 2018, at the WKSF World Championships, with a gold medal and trophy for veteran long cycle.

Kettlebell sport athletes need to have good cardiovascular conditioning so I ran regularly, building up from 400m runs at first to 13 mile, half marathon, distances in 2019. This is mile 11 during the Robin Hood Marathon in 2019, cheered on by other members of Notts Women Runners.

In 2020 I decided to look for a new challenge so I took up Powerlifting. It’s taken a few years to build up technique and strength but I have begun competing again. Here I am in 2023 just after my first Powerlifting meet.