A LAUNCESTON powerlifter has qualified for the world championships after taking first place at the British nationals.

Jade Farrington won the U63kg women’s bench press category at the British Drug Free Powerlifting Association’s National Single Lift Championships in King’s Lynn, Norfolk on Easter Saturday.

The win means Jade is eligible to compete at the World Drug Free Powerlifting Federation’s Single Lift Championships in Wrexham this June.

Jade was favourite to win in Norfolk after breaking the national bench press record last October with a lift of 75.5kg, and her opening 70kg lift was enough to take the title.

She said: “It was fantastic to win and qualify for the worlds but it was a mixed result as I failed to improve on my national record by missing my attempts to lift 76kg. I’d done 77.5kg in training but it wasn’t there on the day. Fortunately 70kg was good enough, with the runner up benching 65kg.”

Jade, a Liberal Democrat councillor representing Launceston South on Cornwall Council, hopes to improve on her performance and beat her record in Wales at the beginning of June.

“I’ve got a prosthetic femur which is deteriorating and needs replacing so the world championships is likely to be my last competition for a while as it’ll take time to recover from the operation,” said Jade.

“The pressure’s on so I’ll be training hard and trying to improve on my lifts at the nationals.”