A Bournemouth student has snatched a British weightlifting record which has been held by an Olympic athlete since 2008.
Noorin Gulam, who studies sports psychology at Bournemouth University, set a new ‘clean and jerk’ personal best of 88kg in the 53kg weight class, breaking the existing under-23s record of 87kg.
The 20-year-old achieved the feat at a regional competition where she managed to make five out of her six lifts while lifting one and a half times her body weight.
She has now qualified to compete at national level.
She said: “It’s amazing to have taken this record, especially from Zoe Smith who is a massively well-known lifter. She won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, so she’s a pretty big deal.”
Since taking up the sport five years ago, Noorin has scooped gold medals at the English Weightlifting Championships and the British Student Weightlifting Championships, which took place earlier this year.
“I am very proud that she came through a difficult year to achieve this goal.”
Currently in the second year of her degree, Noorin had been training 20 hours per week in the run-up to the event. The record-breaking lift took place during the Central Open British weightlifting competition, hosted in Mansfield.
On the day, she competed against seven other weightlifters in her category. But she said it was a different picture several years ago, when very few girls were competing in the sport.
“Five years ago, I would be the only person competing in my category. But it’s developed a lot since then, and it’s the fastest-growing sport for females now.
“I love competing and my friends and family are very supportive. My goal is to get to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and, before that, the World University Games and the Commonwealth Games,” she added.
Noorin thanked Sport BU, Sports Aid, the GLL Sport Foundation, and TASS, which have all supported her during her career.
Courtesy of: Daily Echo