Milly Lacey is one of the very promising young female weightlifters beginning to emerge from the Strength Academy Wales gym in Haverfordwest and at 18 years of age is already a Welsh champion after only just over one year in the sport.
Prior to her joining SAW, Milly was a keen sprinter with Pembrokeshire Harriers, where she first set out as a 12 year old, but made the switch to weightlifting when she attended an ‘Open Day’ run by Simon Roach, who had been one of her teachers at Ysgol Bro Gwaun, in her home town of Fishguard, before he left to open the gym.
As a keen weightlifter himself a few years ago, Simon had suggested Milly might like to try weights when he was her teacher but she thought it was only for boys – until she was taking her Duke of Edinburgh Award and decided that she might take up her former teacher’s suggestion for a new sport in her ‘Physical Activity’ section of the award.
So she turned up at SAW and was delighted with the warmth of her welcome.
“I still find it hard to stop calling Simon ‘Mr Roach’ but his daughter Niamh has been a help with that – and with encouraging me all the way in the gym. We are part of a group of girls that also includes Naomi Pearce, Anita and Helena Madan so it is great that we can work together and give some support when one of us is struggling.”
The emphasis is very much on safety and, like the others, Milly started out with just a bar to practise the techniques of the ‘Clean & Jerk’ and ‘Snatch’ with no weights attached until the methods were second nature.
“I took to the clean & jerk straight away but the snatch was far more difficult and for one whole session I couldn’t manage to even lift the bar properly, let alone any weights on the end. It was very frustrating but suddenly things clicked into place and I’ve been OK at the snatch ever since!
“From there I had small increases in the weight and before long my personal bests were 30kgs in the clean and jerk and 25kgs in the snatch.”
A measure of how much Milly has improved since then can be gauged from the fact that just a year later her respective PBs are 63kgs and 52kgs, a combined increase of 60ks, more than double what she began with!
Prior to her start in weight lifting, Milly enjoyed her athletics after showing early promise at Ysgol Bro Gwaun in the 100 metres and 200 metres, which she won in school and then in the county sports in Haverfordwest. It was suggested that she might join the Harriers and received a lovely welcome from the coaches and other competitors.
From there Milly did really well in the Dyfed and Three Counties Championships, and then went on to represent our area in the Welsh Schools Championships at Cardiff and Brecon with such success that she was part of the area’s relay team which came second in the Welsh Finals.
It meant that Milly and Co only just missed out on a coveted Welsh vest but she represented West Wales against the likes of Telford, Birmingham and Wolverhampton, which always meant a lot of travelling.
It was at this point that the family support should be recognised because the runners were picked up from Haverfordwest and, like in training sessions, she had to be taxied from Fishguard by her parents, Mandy and Chris, who have always been excellent chauffeurs!
Mandy and Milly’s sister Sarah are keen on horses, as was Milly in her younger days, and her grandparents Mary and Dennis Heathcote, who live in Haverfordwest, are others who have given her total support in her sport and her Duke of Edinburgh involvement.
Milly started out with her bronze and then silver D of E awards in Ysgol Bro Gwaun and is now very close to completing the gold award, other than a little volunteering, which could mean a visit to Buckingham Palace to collect it.
Back on the weight lifting front, Milly started out in the deep end because within two months she had entered for the Welsh Schools’ Championships in STP School.
“I had trained hard but nothing really compares you for that moment when you step from behind the curtain out onto the mat in front of other competitors and supporters. It is literally being ‘in the spotlight’ and it is then that you are competing against yourself.
“I was the only competitor in my class but I still had to make sure that I had at least one good lift in each category and in the circumstances I was doubly pleased when I collected my gold medal because I was successful in all three of my lifts in both the clean & jerk, and snatch sections!”
In the intervening year, Milly has also competed in four ‘lifting league’ events (designed to give practice in Haverfordwest and Swansea) as well as three more serious events, starting with the Welsh Open in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.
“It was an awful day because I had a stinking gold and allowed my nerves in front of a much bigger crowd to get to me so I under-achieved – but I learned a lot about myself and I still did well enough to qualify for the British Closed Championships later this year as all the cheering helped me complete my last clean and jerk lift.
Milly certainly looked a different competitor at the recent Welsh Schools’ Championship and picked up her second gold medal with lifts of 56, 58 and 60kgs in the clean and jerk, followed by lifts of 48 and 50kgs in the snatch before failing at 53kgs as she attempted her best total ever.
She and her friend Niamh had devised a special breakfast for the day which they refuse to divulge but it definitely includes drinking lots of water alongside eating lots of flap jacks, fruit and a Crunchy Bar after the weigh-in!
She would say she was a little disappointed to miss that one lift but she has studied the video and now knows exactly what she has to do next time!
So now Milly is back training hard four times every week (more taxi driving for mum and dad!) and goes through a series of warm-up exercises before undertaking more technical work under the watchful eyes of Simon Roach and Justin Head.
Ask her about ambitions and Milly might say that on the weightlifting front she would love to represent Wales before going off next year to Liverpool University, where she is hoping to take an honours degree in Theology and Religious Studies.
It’s a fair bet that she will carry on her sporting interest in Liverpool and there’s one thing for sure – if Milly Lacey competes there she will fly the Pembrokeshire Sporting Flag with distinction because she really is a credit to her family, club and country!
Courtesy of: Western Telegraph