Ellon’s Leith has power to lift junior champion trophy

A former Ellon rugby player has become Scottish junior powerlifting champion.

Kierran Leith, 23, saw off stiff competition in the Edinburgh event.

He said: “The week before winning the Scottish National Junior Championship in Edinburgh, I finished second in the British Championships at Moulton College in Northampton.

“I was really pleased with my performance in Northampton and it helped set me up well for our own national event.

“This is my last year as a junior as the cut-off age is 23 so I’m very happy indeed to have finished with the win.

“I started off playing rugby for my local team here in Ellon and I was training and doing conditioning work then.

“I played at loose-head prop so I suppose I had the right physical build to go on and become a powerlifter.

“About three years ago I got a bit tired of playing rugby and I had to move away from Ellon for a few months so I ended up lifting more and more weights and stopped playing rugby.

“I decided to try a powerlifting competition two years ago. I liked it and now that I am the Scottish junior champion my next big competition is to represent Scotland in the home internationals against England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Leith added: “I train about four or five times a week for between two and three hours a session at the Results gym at South College Street in Aberdeen. Most of the guys there are strongmen rather than powerlifters.”

There was more northeast success at the British Masters in Belfast when Oldmeldrum powerlifter Lynsey Christie came third.

Photograph by Kath Flannery WEIGHT OVER: Kierran Leith swapped rugby for lifting.