POWERLIFTING: Charlie stars at British Championships (From Swindon Advertiser)

POWERLIFTING: Charlie stars at British Championships

8:14pm Sunday 17th March 2013 in Sport

SWINDON powerlifter Charlie Shotton-Gale has landed the British Bench Press Championships title.

Shotton-Gale, the current British Powerlifting Champion, claimed the crown at the event held at Ashington, Northumberland on Sunday, March 10.

After two days of heavy dieting down to make the category weight of a maximum 84k body weight, Shotton-Gale felt a little weakened but still achieved 125k on her first attempt.

The lifter tried to press 130k on her second attempt, a personal best, but due to a back muscle cramp she failed.

The third attempt was again 130k, and although Shotton-Gale appeared to complete the task, she was failed on a technicality and therefore walked away with one successful lift and the British Championship Title.

“Training has been going fantastic, and I’ve got a couple of training personal bests, but I knew the weight loss would hit the bench hard, and it seems I was right,” she said.

“I am hoping to be invited to go to the European Bench Press Championships which are being held in August in Slovakia. I have the European Powerlifting Championships in May so I will see if I can achieve the record there.

“I’d like to thank my sponsors - Mike McGuire’s butchers, Princess Homecare, SG Fitness and Huck’s Sparks, without whom travelling and training for competitions would be near impossible.”

Last year Shotton-Gale made a wager in her fundraising attempts for Breaking Free Women’s support group that if she missed any of the British Records at the World Powerlifting Championships 2012 she would shave all her hair off.

“I am so pleased I didn’t make a wager on this competition, my hair is slowly growing back and I have no intention of shaving it off again,” she said.

The Swindon Powerlifting Club’s next competitive action is set to be the South West Powerlifting Championships on April 21, 2013 in Cheltenham.

For more details visit www.sg-fitness.co.uk or call 08000807408.