Brilliant Beth lifts well Down Under
Star closer to place at Commonwealth Games
Livingston weightlifter Beth McLellan moved one step closer to competing at the Commonwealth Games next year by sealing a bronze medal at the recent Commonwealth Championship in Australia.
The 20-year-old finished third in the 58kg Junior Women’s category after lifting 63kg in the snatch and 75kg in the clean and jerk.
A thrilled Beth said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have returned home with a medal. I honestly didn’t expect it, although my scores weren’t actually as good as I have done in training.
“It was a tiring event and there was the obvious issue with jet lag and your body clock not really being right but it was an amazing experience.
“It was different to the events back home and everything was really on a much bigger scale. You’re also competing against some of the top weightlifters in the world so it was a real challenge.
“I was able to get a decent look at what could be the main opposition for next year and I’m pretty confident.”
She added: “I wasn’t at my very best. The hardest thing is really taking your results and form in training and replicating that in big competitions.
“I still got a bronze, and I’m very happy with that but maybe if I was able to get that little bit extra I might have got a silver.”
The medal marks an incredible comeback from illness that had previously ruled her out of the sport for over year.
But she returned to claim the Scottish Junior title in the 58kg category before her bronze in Australia.
Despite Beth’s success, there are doubts about whether Team Scotland will be fielding a weightlifting team at the Commonwealth Games, but she holds out hopes for a return trip down under next summer.
She said: “It obviously depends on funding because there’s really not a lot of funding in the sport.
“We’ve had it all cut and I had to fundraise so I could get to the Commonwealth Championships and it wasn’t cheap.
“Scotland has some really talented weightlifters so I really hope that they will be able to go and obviously the aim would then be to be part of the team.”
Beth would like to thank Your Move Estate Agents, West Lothian ROAB, the Fowlis family and family and friends for their fundraising efforts that allowed her to make the trip to Australia.