Eden powerlifter Loureen Kelly has a preliminary nationals qualifying rank of second in Australia, but she said she competes for a love of the sport.
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“As soon as I went to my first competition I fell in love with it, I didn’t care if I was good or not,” Kelly said with a laugh.
The ranking is very fluid as other competitors could lift more at any qualifying event between now and nationals next year.
But it’s still a remarkable feat for the Eden woman, who had never taken on competition beyond locally run events by her trainer Dan Dakis.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting any of that,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve never been to a competition outside of Dan’s, I was pretty shocked at the result actually.”
“I still don’t fully understand [the ranking], but I was stoked just to place at the competition.”
As one of the first qualifiers on the road to nationals, Kelly cemented herself a top finish on the podium and second overall with three personal bests at the Global Powerlifting Committee (GPC) Canberra Cup event.
And the results are some remarkable numbers, she squatted 117.5kg a bench press of 77.5kg and a deadlift of 160kg.
Kelly said she hadn’t been involved in the sport all that long, but certainly has the bug for it now.
“I started doing online coaching with Dan and have been doing a few local comps since then over the last few months,” she said.
“I’ve loved it since I started, the sport itself, but just meeting everyone involved – the powerlifting community is so supportive and encouraging.”
Dakis, who competes himself and coaches a small team of successful lifters, said it was a fantastic result and just reward for Kelly’s hard work in the gym.
“We like to train how we compete and it’s an individual sport, you alone lift the weights, but it can be a team effort to prepare someone for a competition day,” Dakis said.
“All the guys compete, but they train together and push each other to get these higher results.
“It’s a brilliant result, but we’ll have to wait and see how Loureen’s results stack up against other competitors ahead of nationals.”
Kelly said the result had got her pumped on her current form and she was now eager to push for bigger and better personal bests.