Zoe Smith carves history for England in Women Weightlifting
Zoe Smith, the 16-year-old English women Weightlifting medallist has succeeded in carving the history, for she is the first English woman ever to make it to the bronze medal in the Women Weightlifting competition at the Commonwealth Games. It is worth mentioning
over here that the girl was participating in her first international competition ever.
The people who are close to Zoe are not surprised at her success as according to them, she had all the ingredients to give a stellar performance. For media correspondents, she proved to be impressively articulate and talented. While meeting her, one easily
tends to forget that she is only 16.
Though for a young girl like Zoe, the Delhi Commonwealth Games competition was rather big, however, the girl did not depict a single sign of being under pressure. Though her rivals were considerably stronger and experienced than her, she found no reason
for not being able to pull out a big score out of the bag.
She altogether lifted 188 kg of weight which also included her personal best of 85kg. For her impressive performance before the spectators, she was rewarded with a bronze medal.
Commenting upon the success of young Zoe, her happy looking coach Andy Callard told the media that Zoe was not only the first English woman ever to win a medal in weightlifting, she was just 16 when she made it to such a crucial milestone of her career as
weightlifter. The coach admitted that he was perhaps more nervous than Zoe when she was competing much senior rivals. He further said that Zoe Smith contained much mental as well as physical strength.
Highlighting an important aspect the coach said that while he was dwelling upon the delicious daal and rice available in Delhi, Zoe was strictly told to control her weight and to not let that go beyond 58kg. He said that during last ten weeks or so the girl
had shed around 5 kg of weight for which she had to considerably decrease her carbohydrate intakes. For a weightlifter this was rather incredible to sustain the strength while considerably reducing the diet intake.
When asked to share her views about how she managed to remain below 58kg, the girl said that the best way for doing so was to dehydrate. Though to stay dehydrated might not be difficult for people living in colder regions, doing the exercise in Delhi was
rather nerve controlling.
The great thing about Zoe Smith was that despite of her hard work for making it to the medal, the girl looked absolutely normal. Just like any other girl of her age, she likes watching movies, spending her time with friends, getting engaged on Internet and
listening to the music. Her rather normal looking activities do not depict that she has the potential of competing in such a tough game.
An interesting fact about Zoe Smith, as told by her coach, was that she did not choose weightlifting herself; rather she was interested in gymnastics. One day, as she was practicing, someone at the club told her that she would not be able to prove a good
gymnast; however she should try her lucks in weightlifting. The girl took the advice rather seriously and put all her energies to become a good weightlifter. Andy Callard, the coach of Zoe Smith said that he was happy about how right that person was who advised
Smith for trying weightlifting.
After winning bronze at Delhi Games, Zoe is now eyeing London 2012 as a major event for her. Apart from preparing for the next major event, the girl would also be appearing in her A-levels exams which will start a few months earlier than the Olympics.
Giving his views about the preparations of Zoe for the coming Olympics, her coach said that though the event would be huge, but it was still two years away and by that time Zoe would be 18 years old, which would significantly and positively affect her performance
in the coming big event.
Tags: