Bendigo teenager Anabelle Harwood is continuing to raise the bar on her fledgling weightlifting career.
Competing in only her second event and first senior competition, the 16 year-old finished second in the 63kg girls class at the Victorian Senior Championships.
So impressive was her performance, it took a two-time Commonwealth Games medallist to relegate Harwood to second place.
The Crusoe College student ended the championships with a snatch attempt of 61kg and clean and jerk of 70kg, for a total of 131kg.
That put her one spot below multiple Australian record-holder and 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Seen Lee.
Harwood’s 131kg total was a staggering 15kg more than she lifted en-route top winning her maiden title at the Victorian School Weightlifting Championships in July.
Her coach Troy Hewkins said he was amazed at the youngster’s rapid development.
“She was the youngest competitor across all bodyweights by far,” Hewkins said.
“She’s still a bit light on for her 63kg category, but it was an amazing performance.
“I’ve known Seen Lee for about 13 years and she has been around a long time and is ultra-experienced.
“What Anabelle was able to do was incredible.”
He said Harwood would next compete in February, with a view to qualifying for the Oceania Youth Championships in May and world championships later in the year.
He admitted it would be a tough ask to qualify for either, but believed Harwood possessed amazing potential and will to succeed.
“She would have to do a 150kg total by February, which isn’t impossible, but she would need to keep improving at the same rate as she has from her first competition to the second,” he said.
“Normally you do start to slow down a little bit.
“Weightlifting is a more measurable sort of sport, you can only lift ‘x’ amount of weight and keep lifting more for so long.”
Hewkins put the rising star’s chances of qualifying for the world championships at 50 per cent, without injury, but said Harwood had already defied expectations on two occasions.
Courtesy of: Bendigo Advertiser