Kelly said on social media she was delighted with the win, hauling a combined total of nearly 400kg across the three disciplines to take out the title once more. 

As the sole 90kg entrant, Kelly said it was a bit of a shame the win “was by default”, but by comparison the mother of two was out-lifting competitors in the 110kg weight class. 

The bench press was a highlight for the Eden lifter, who made a five-kilogram personal best on the bench hitting 85kg. 

Kelly said it was something she “had a chip on her shoulder about” after accomplishing the lift before in the gym, but missing it in the state titles last year. 

“This is the lift I wanted so badly today … but that 85 kilos is mine now, which makes me so excited to see how I can smash that number next time,” she said.  

The squat is where the Eden lifter made the most gains, hitting a 10kg personal best in what she described as her “worst lift [discipline]”.

“Comp day squats will always make me a nervous wreck,” she says with a laugh, “but I opened on my competition max from Sydney Cup at the end of last year and honestly that's a great feeling. “I was so happy with my squat this preparation.”

In the final test, her deadlift was five kilograms off her competition maximum, but Kelly said “it was all I had left in the tank” after taking four separate flights to make the state competition. 

“Honestly it was all I had in the tank for the day and I'm happy that it was enough to put my total over to a new total PB,” Kelly said.

“After four very long flights I was super cooked by this stage and the coach made the right decision to pull the deadlift back.”

The combined total of 385kg is almost 30kg more than she was able to lift at last year’s state title and the Eden competitor said she was aiming to get even stronger for next year, spending the coming months training hypertrophy – building muscle before returning to competition preparation training.

“Thanks to my coach Luke Shakespeare, this is our first prep and comp together and I couldn't be happier – his programming was exactly what I was after,” she said, while on the spot advice from her coach made the contest much less stressful. 

Kelly thanked her partner Cameron and fellow lifters from the Iron Stronghold in Pambula Dan Dakis, Nik Stone, Aaron Gorsch and Victor for their support and encouragement. “I may be there on the platform alone but powerlifting is definitely a team sport,” Kelly said.