PLYMOUTH athlete Doaa Shayea enjoyed an impressive international debut for the British Weight Lifting team this weekend.
Shayea, who has been competing in wheelchair racing for City of Plymouth Athletics Club since she was a teenager, is out in Tbilisi, Georgia, representing her country at the 2022 World Para Powerlifting (WPPO) European Championships.
And she made an instant impression in GB colours competing in the women’s powerlifting 61kg class.
Shayea produced a life-time best lift of 65kg, which gave her a bronze medal in the overall total competition.
British Weight Lifting were using the championships to look at new talent ahead of next year’s World Championships and the Paris Paralympics.
Tom Whittaker, British para powerlifting performance director, said when announcing the GB team: “This is a significant event on the qualification road to Paris and will establish athletes initial ranking positions for the games in 2024.
“The team is young and hungry off the back of performances at the American Open and Birmingham Commonwealth Games. It will be a fantastic opportunity and insight as to how we stack up against the rest of Europe so soon after the Commonwealth Games and ahead of the worlds next June.”
Doaa Shayea just made her international debut at the @Powerlifting European Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia.
62kg ✅ 65kg ✅ 70kg ❌
This put Doaa in fourth place and gave her a third place for the total
A fantastic debut, well done Doaa! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/YChAXYaPkQ
— BritishWeightLifting (@GBWeightLifting) September 24, 2022