On the back of her successful introduction to weightlifting, Year 12 student, Samantha Hansen, has been selected into the New Zealand 2016 Youth World Championships and the 2016 Youth Commonwealth Championships team. 

This team will be travelling to compete in Penang, Malaysia from the 19th – 25th of October, 2016. Sam competed in her first weightlifting competition just over two months ago and, this past weekend, entered the National Secondary Schools competition. 

She competed in Wellington and blitzed the regional field with an incredible 80kg clean and jerk and a 63kg snatch, for a total of 143kg. Weights are now in from other competitors based in Auckland and Dunedin and we are delighted to report that Sam has been named the Over 15s National Champion for the Females Under 69kg division! An incredible and well deserved result.