Less than four years after taking up weight training, Gloucestershire’s Dawn Barlow has been crowned a world champion in powerlifting.
The 20-year-old, who is currently studying medicine at Plymouth University, finished first at the WPC World Championships in Portugal – competing in the junior 75kg women’s raw full power category.
Barlow grew up in Cheltenham and started training at GL1 in Gloucester from the age of 16, instantly uncovering a natural talent for lifting heavy.
In January 2015, she switched to a different gym in Plymouth – The Engine Room – which sparked her interest in entering a powerlifting competition and she has not looked back since.
“I started going to the gym when I was 16 and got into weight training from an early age,” she said.
“Even when I started lifting, I found I could lift more than most females the same age as me.
“I still remember being able to squat 90kg by the time I was 17-years-old. My body is a great shape and size for powerlifting and I think that has always helped.
“I started at a new gym in January 2015, which had more of a competition focus and was specialised more towards strength training and bodybuilding.
“I asked one of the people who was working at the gym at the time for a spot and they suggested I started powerlifting.
“They introduced me to another powerlifter at the gym and he went through all of the movements with me and helped me push myself to my full potential so I entered a competition which he was also going to.”
The Former Lakeside Primary School pupil played hockey, netball and athletics at school, but feels she is far more suited to strength sports.
She added: “It’s always really encouraging when you find something you’re good at.
“In sport, you can always set yourself goals to push for, and once you’ve reached those, go a little bit further.
“I get such a buzz when I leave the gym with a PB or move a weight for more reps or more easily than I did a few weeks ago.
“For me, I think it’s the ability to constantly improve, impress yourself and push yourself to the limits.”
Her current personal best lifts are 150kg for the squat, 82.5kg for bench press and 162.5kg for the deadlift.
She placed first in her debut competition – a south west qualifier – before going on to win at the British Championships in Andover in July, where she took the title of best overall female.
That earned her a place against the world’s best in Maia, Portugal, earlier this month.
Having once again come out on top, she plans to switch to Olympic lifting.
She said: “It was difficult to train for both powerlifting and weightlifting simultaneously, so I’ve waited for my powerlifting competition to finish in order to take my weightlifting training up a notch.
“Now I’ve started training properly for weightlifting, I will be entering competitions in the new year to begin my competitive sporting career in weightlifting.
“On the other hand, because I could not attend last year due to exam commitments, I am considering attending the European Powerlifting Championships which will be in mid-2016.”
Courtesy of: Gloucestershire Echo