Longwarry teacher Alicia Wilson has power lifted her way to gold during the recent Asian Pacific Championships held in Hong Kong last week.
Powerlifting comprises a squat, bench and dead lift, with the total being added together to produce a final score. In the competition, Ms Wilson competed a perfect nine out of nine lifts, smashing her personal bests across the event to take home the gold medal.
Before competing on an international level, Alicia had to compete in the nationals, but recorded a slightly disappointing result, which lead her to question herself.
“My coach Megan Reed sort of put it on me and asked me if I wanted to do this, and I actually said no. I was a bit more hesitant, but she pushed me along to achieve this really big goal of mine,” she said.
“I trained for six months at home after that nationals competition and said I was going to get better. You have to use it as a motivation and determination to get better. I talked a lot with my coach, and we worked on my mental strength,” she said.
Alicia said that personally, it was a massive milestone in her career, giving her the confidence to continue to grow in the sport of powerlifting.
“My next goal is to do nationals again in June and compete better there, then come back to the Oceanias at the end of next year once again,” she explained.
Alicia only took up the sport three years ago after a mutual friend recognised the potential she had in the sport. From there, she competed in a novice girl only competition, before being asked to join the strength team afterwards at the end of 2015.
“I went and watched a competition and saw the girls that were competing had the Australian suit on and thought, that’s what I want to do,” she said.