A Berriedale powerlifter is preparing to represent Australia at the World Bench Press Championships in Poland.
Amelia Briant, 30, will compete in the open category after receiving a surprise invitation to join the Australian team.
Briant will compete in the under 69 kilograms weight class and currently holds a competition best of bench pressing 95 kilograms.
She’s hoping to crack the 100 kilogram mark before she leaves for Poland and again on the world stage – a lift of nearly one and a half times her body weight.
“Anything above that would be pretty spectacular,” she told Pulse.
Just 12 months ago, her goal was simply to bench press her own body weight.
“I’ve come a long way in a short time, which is really cool,” she said.
Briant trains four times a week at Iron Jungle in Bridgewater, fitting sessions around work and spending time her two kids.
In the lead-up to competitions, she does at least six variations of bench press a week.
Her path to the world championships began at the Australian Powerlifting Alliance national bench press competition held in Tasmania in December last year, where she placed fourth among women in her weight class.
She wasn’t expecting to be selected for the bench press only world championships but some of the other competitors who finished higher than her are competing in the bench press, squats and deadlifts categories.
Briant said she hasn’t yet seen a list of international competitors and isn’t sure what she’ll be up against.
“I’m going for obviously the experience, but also some PBs would be good too,” she said.
“[To] place would be amazing.”
Her lifting community has set up a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of travelling to Poland, something Briant said she didn’t feel comfortable doing herself.
“It just takes a huge stress off as, you know, a mum of two and all the rest of the bills and the economy and the way it’s going,” she said.
Briant said she’d also tried to access government sporting grants but was told powerlifting federations aren’t yet officially recognised as a sport.
She’s keen to raise the profile of the discipline.
“Strength is everything as we get older in age,” she said.
“It’s actually about the foundations of your body and building your pyramid from a strong base up.”
The championships run from May 23 to 30.
