Smith in stunning form to take Silver

It was a great day for Zoe Smith at the European Youth Weightlifting Championships in Vallencia, Spain.  Competing in a group of 11 athletes, the entry totals showed that it was going to be very competitive for the medals,  with any one of five athletes capable of taking the honours.  In the snatch, Zoe came out earlier than her opponents, making a very comfortable 74kg,  to get her name on the scoreboard.  She did, however,  have the crowd on the edge of their seats, starting her lift with only three seconds remaining on the clock!  She then had to wait some time before her second successful attempt of 80 kg.  Her last lift of 84 kg, which was a 6kg PB, she made it look easy, suggesting that she can still lift more.  The 84 kg was good enough to take bronze in the snatch, behind  Nesihan Okumus (TUR), whose best was 85kg, and Diana Akhmetova (RUS) who set a new European youth record of 93 kg.

In the clean and jerk, Zoe again had the crowd on edge of their seats as she raised her opening lift to a new PB of 101 kg, she came out confidently and was successful with her first attempt.  Now, in medal contention for both the clean and jerk and the total, she went up 106 kg to put pressure on the Turkish girl for the silver, and on the Russian who was opening with 105 kg and who Zoe had body weight advantage over.  After successfully lifting the 106 kg and securing silver,  Zoe then went up to 110 kg to keep the pressure on the Russian.  Both Zoe and Diana Akhmetova (RUS) got their lifts of 110 kg, but with Russian still having one lift left, she raised the bar to 111 kg, which she just got to take gold in both the clean and jerk and the total.

Afterwards, Zoe said that felt that she was still dreaming, as she couldn't believe that she had come so close to challenging the Russian for the gold in the clean and jerk., and come away with a silver medal in the total.   With six out of six lifts, and PB's across the board, and with a massive 22 kg on her competition total in the 58 kg category this was a superb performance from Zoe, who will now certainly be challenging for a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

BWLA Chief Executive Steve Cannon was quoted “ This is the best lifting by British lifter for more than 10 years, not since Michaela Breeze’s Gold at the European junior championships in 1999, have I seen lifting like this, with six at six lifts we couldn't ask for more”.

Zoe was supported in this event by her Personal Coach, Andrew Callard and WCL Head Coach Tamas Feher.

Full results can be found here. http://www.polska-sztanga.h2.pl/live/

Great Britain’s other competitor Sonny Webster (77kg) lifts tomorrow morning (10.00am. UK time)  and will be looking to further improve on his recent PBs.