Rowan in confident mood

Perthshire weightlifter Rowan Morrogh Bernard is in perfect form to lead Scotland to victory at the Celtic Nations Championships today.

The 17-year-old forms part of the Scottish team that will take on Wales and Ireland at Edinburgh Napier University.

Having won the competition with Scotland last year, Morrogh Bernard heads to Edinburgh full of confidence after equalling her personal best at the European Youth Weightlifting Championships in Kosovo last month.

This success came on the back of a bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Championships – and the teenager puts her renewed motivation down to her new club, Glasgow City Barbell.

“I’ve come back from those competitions and my training’s got so much better,” she said.

“At the moment I’m able to train all the time and I improved my best clean and jerk by 5kg since I got back – it’s 87kg now.

“I’m hoping to do the best I can at the Celtic Nations; it’s a team competition so at the end all our totals come together. We won last year and we’d like to be able to keep the title.

“Earlier this year I got the chance to train at Glasgow City Barbell with John Mcewan, which has been amazing.

“I never had proper scheduling or routine to my training, but he’s structured everything and the totals I can do now are all down to him.”