A Suffolk athlete is targeting a place in the British Weightlifting Championships after she finished in the top 10 in England.

East Anglian Daily Times: Kirsty Turner has just competed in the English Weightlifting Championships.Kirsty Turner has just competed in the English Weightlifting Championships.

Kirsty Turner, 25, of Ipswich, finished seventh out of 14 competitors at the English Championships last month.

Competing in the under 69 kgs category, Turner hoisted a total of 145 kgs across two disciplines – the snatch and the clean and jerk.

She’s now focusing all her efforts on qualifying for the British Championships, but needs to improve her personal best by seven kilogrammes to reach her goal.

Turner, from Ipswich, a coach at CrossFit Ipswich, said: “I found the experience to be really beneficial, it was tough, but I’ve come out better for the experience.”

Turner has been training in the sport for three years, and puts herself through a gruelling regime of five sessions of weight training and one session of cardio a week.

These sessions usually last for two hours and her diet is just as strict, as she explained: “It contains a lot of protein and carbohydrates regularly. This changes when I get close to a competition, usually two weeks prior it becomes testing!”

However, Turner has the perfect recipe for when its time to let her hair down. “When it’s time to have a cheat meal it has to be burgers, cheese, wine and Creme Eggs!” she confessed.

Turner is also heartened by the growing number of women taking part in the sport, which has traditionally been dominated by men.

She said: “When I first started training women were hesitant about getting involved, too many stereotypes. Yet, in last month’s competition there was a 65% growth in women competing.”

Turner’s coach, Darren Hotten, thinks she has all the tools to reach the top of the sport.

He said: “Last month’s competition was all about gaining experience, it was an invaluable for her progression. Her main goal is to qualify for the British competition in June – she has plenty of time still.”

Turner will have the opportunity to qualify for the British Championships by competing in regional contests which happen every six to eight weeks.

Hotten, who is the head coach at CrossFit Colchester said: “Her personal best is 150 kgs which she lifted in the gym, the next part of her development is now taking that form into the competitions.”