A 20-year-old student from Newtown is taking the sport of powerlifting by storm, achieving a string of gold medals and British and English records as she bids to compete against the best in the world.
Emily Lloyd Whittington, who is studying fashion management and marketing at Manchester University, has been competing for only a year after joining the North West Powerlifting Association.
Yet she is already making a name for herself after breaking a series of records. Last month, she won four gold medals at the International Powerlifting Federation’s Commonwealth Championships in Potchefstroom, South Africa where she represented England and was cheered on by her parents, Nigel and Terryanne, who live in Newtown.
Competing in the under 63 kilos junior class, Emily squatted 145 kilos, winning a gold medal and breaking the English record. Her second gold medal and another English record followed as she benched 80 kilos and a third brace came when she deadlifted 167.5 kilos, but this time she broke the British record also. Overall, she totalled 392.5 kilos and took a fourth gold medal.
Her next competition is the Junior British Powerlifting Championships in Motherwell in November where success will put her in contention for the IPF World Powerlifting Championships in Canada next June.
A former pupil of Ysgol Dafydd Llwyd, Newtown and Llanfair Caereinon High School, Emily also competed at the All England Powerlifting Championships 2017 in May where she became Junior English Champion in the under 63 kilos category.
She squatted 135 kilos, benched 72.5 kilos and deadlifted 160 kilos, breaking the under 23 English Powerlifting National 2017 records in each category.
She praised her “awesome” coach Tom Martin at the Olympic Sports Gym in Ashton Under Lyne, Manchester and is now appealing for sponsorship to help continue her meteoric rise in the sport.
Rees Astley, insurance brokers and independent financial advisers, made a donation towards the cost of her competing in South Africa and she is hoping that other sponsors will come forward to support her.
She has set her sights on competing at the European Championships in Lithuania and World Championships in Canada and is hoping she can raise up to £5,000 to cover flights, accommodation and other costs.
“The goal is to compete at the World Championships and I would like to get a world title or a podium place,” said Emily. “The world records are a bit higher than the British ones because you have the Americans and other countries competing.
“It would be nice to be able to do the European and World Championships but it is very costly and it would be amazing if sponsors could help.”
Powerlifting is not currently an Olympic sport but Emily is hoping that changes in the future.
She explained that she was always been keen on sports at school and began training with weights to compete with her brother, Wil. She joined the powerlifting society at college and it has taken off from there.
“I find it amazing what the body can do,” she added. “You can push it to do anything. I never thought I would be able to lift the numbers I do when I started and it shows that anyone can do anything, if they put their mind to it.”
As for a career when she leaves university, she hopes to become a personal trainer and coach in the fitness industry and would love to work in Manchester, a city she loves.
Anyone interested in sponsoring Emily can contact her at: emily.whittington01@gmail.com
Photo: Emily with coach Tom Martin
