Pint-sized powerlifteraiming for british title

Not many of Nicky Elding's friends know what the 5ft 2in bundle of energy does in her spare time.

"I suppose it's because I'm so small," said eight-stone Nicky, whose ambition this year is to succeed at the British Weightlifting Association British Championships.

Her personal bests are a 70kg squat, a bench press of 60kg and a deadlift of 120kg.

And they were good enough to win her the North Midlands Divisional Powerlifting Championship.

But the Nottingham Evening Post employee's ambitions reach higher than that for 2003.

The 34-year-old partnership marketing manager has pencilled in the British championships in June as her next big target.

"I'm preparing now for the competitions that come along very quickly in the New Year," said Nicky, who trains at Fitness First in Nottingham.

Her routine takes up two hours a day, half-an-hour in the morning before she goes to work, half-an-hour at lunchtime and one hour in the evening when she gets home to Boston.

Nicky is also the reigning NABBA Miss North East, and hopes to defend her bodybuilding title in May.

"The bodybuilding and powerlifting are two quite different sports," said Nicky.

"But I'm able to run the two parallel. I'm planning four competitions this year and they all come pretty close together."

She first became interested in powerlifting as a 15-year-old through her father Mike Davis, who is a former British Powerlifting champion.

"My dad is still involved and is a referee for the British Weightlifting Association," she added.

"It doesn't matter how old you are, and that's one of the things I like about the sport."