Yasmin, who is studying Natural Sciences, Biosciences and Chemistry, discovered her passion for lifting while rowing for LEH.  She says: “I remember I really looked forward to our strength and conditioning training sessions twice a week and one of my favourite memories was a fun ‘lifting camp’ that our squad did with our coach Stu one summer. After moving on from rowing, I decided to pursue this, later discovering powerlifting at university in Loughborough.”

Despite its name, powerlifting is an exercise in strength, not power. The object is to lift as much weight as you can; the very top lifters in the sport can hoist over 1,000 pounds. Athletes compete in the squat, bench press, and deadlift and the scores for each is added to give an overall total.

Yasmin travelled to New Zealand last year where she won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Bench-press Championships. She adds: “I have also competed in the British Bench-press championships, where I won and set a new British record and I am due to compete at the World Bench-press championships next month in South Africa!

“I also recently competed at the British University Championships where I placed first and so hopefully will go on to be selected for the upcoming University World Cup (fingers crossed).” Many congratulations to Yasmin - we’re keeping our fingers crossed too!