Teh One Who Knocks
01-07-2012, 12:03 PM
By Kerry Mcqueeney - The Daily Mail
Mention the word dumb blonde to this teenager and she's likely to reach for the dumb bells.
At the tender age of 16, Bronwyn Taylor, from Inverness in Scotland, is Britain’s strongest schoolgirl.
She had planned to become a hairdresser, but after taking up powerlifting a year ago her athletic potential went from strength to strength.
Just 12 months after taking up the sport, Bronwyn has stunned her friends and family by breaking three British records at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation Championships.
http://i.imgur.com/9obSR.jpg
She can lift twice her own body weight and became the strongest under-18 at a competition in Bournemouth last month by hefting a combined weight of 247.5 kilograms (38st 13lb).
Fifth year student Bronwyn - who is 5 feet 10 ins and weighs 11 stone 4lb - is now training for the Olympics and hopes to compete in the 2016 games.
Bronwyn said: 'I was very nervous as I knew it was going to be a big event, but it felt amazing to break the British record - I couldn’t believe it.
'I was in shock all day. I really enjoy powerlifting, I have tried to get a few of my friends at school into it but they aren’t interested.
http://i.imgur.com/4nIpY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zXXvR.jpg
'They think they will end up looking like the Incredible Hulk, but that’s not true. My mum is really proud of me.'
She set records the under-18 category at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation Championships in overall weight (247.5kg), bench press (50kg) and dead lift (125kg) and the squat lift section with a hurculean effort of 72.5kg.
Bronwyn was inspired to take up powerlifting - which uses a different technique to weightlifting - when training in boxing and karate in December 2010.
She began to hit the gym with her dad Andrew, 43, who runs a removals firm, and with his help quickly discovered her talent for powerlifting.
Bronwyn began training almost every day around her studies at Culloden Academy, Inverness, and competed just months later.
She broke the Scottish record in October by lifting a combined weight of 260 kilograms (40 st 13lbs) at the Scottish Open championships in Glasgow.
The record did not count as a British record because it was not completed at the British competition.
Both her British and Scottish record-breaking weights are compiled from three lifts, the bench press, the deadlift and the squat, standard practice for measuring record attempts in the sport.
Bronwyn’s mother Florence accompanies her daughter to Peak Physique Gym, near their home in Inverness to help her train.
Florence, 46, said: 'I’m astonishingly proud. She’s only been doing it since Christmas 2010.
'She got the idea when she was in the gym building up strength for other sports and she decided she enjoyed it so she began competing.
'We were surprised at first but she had grown up with gym talk because her dad Andrew is into fitness and always spoke about the gym when she was a child.
'It’s quite funny because Andrew runs a removals firm and people are shocked when Scotland’s strongest girl turns up to help.
'Her younger brother Cosmo now wants to get into it but he has to wait a few years because he’s only 12.'
Bronwyn added: 'I’d like to think that my powerlifting will encourage other women to lift weights.'
Bronwyn, who studies hairdressing one day a week at Inverness College, now has her sights set on the Bench Press Championships in Northampton on February 11.
Mention the word dumb blonde to this teenager and she's likely to reach for the dumb bells.
At the tender age of 16, Bronwyn Taylor, from Inverness in Scotland, is Britain’s strongest schoolgirl.
She had planned to become a hairdresser, but after taking up powerlifting a year ago her athletic potential went from strength to strength.
Just 12 months after taking up the sport, Bronwyn has stunned her friends and family by breaking three British records at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation Championships.
http://i.imgur.com/9obSR.jpg
She can lift twice her own body weight and became the strongest under-18 at a competition in Bournemouth last month by hefting a combined weight of 247.5 kilograms (38st 13lb).
Fifth year student Bronwyn - who is 5 feet 10 ins and weighs 11 stone 4lb - is now training for the Olympics and hopes to compete in the 2016 games.
Bronwyn said: 'I was very nervous as I knew it was going to be a big event, but it felt amazing to break the British record - I couldn’t believe it.
'I was in shock all day. I really enjoy powerlifting, I have tried to get a few of my friends at school into it but they aren’t interested.
http://i.imgur.com/4nIpY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zXXvR.jpg
'They think they will end up looking like the Incredible Hulk, but that’s not true. My mum is really proud of me.'
She set records the under-18 category at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation Championships in overall weight (247.5kg), bench press (50kg) and dead lift (125kg) and the squat lift section with a hurculean effort of 72.5kg.
Bronwyn was inspired to take up powerlifting - which uses a different technique to weightlifting - when training in boxing and karate in December 2010.
She began to hit the gym with her dad Andrew, 43, who runs a removals firm, and with his help quickly discovered her talent for powerlifting.
Bronwyn began training almost every day around her studies at Culloden Academy, Inverness, and competed just months later.
She broke the Scottish record in October by lifting a combined weight of 260 kilograms (40 st 13lbs) at the Scottish Open championships in Glasgow.
The record did not count as a British record because it was not completed at the British competition.
Both her British and Scottish record-breaking weights are compiled from three lifts, the bench press, the deadlift and the squat, standard practice for measuring record attempts in the sport.
Bronwyn’s mother Florence accompanies her daughter to Peak Physique Gym, near their home in Inverness to help her train.
Florence, 46, said: 'I’m astonishingly proud. She’s only been doing it since Christmas 2010.
'She got the idea when she was in the gym building up strength for other sports and she decided she enjoyed it so she began competing.
'We were surprised at first but she had grown up with gym talk because her dad Andrew is into fitness and always spoke about the gym when she was a child.
'It’s quite funny because Andrew runs a removals firm and people are shocked when Scotland’s strongest girl turns up to help.
'Her younger brother Cosmo now wants to get into it but he has to wait a few years because he’s only 12.'
Bronwyn added: 'I’d like to think that my powerlifting will encourage other women to lift weights.'
Bronwyn, who studies hairdressing one day a week at Inverness College, now has her sights set on the Bench Press Championships in Northampton on February 11.