Zoe Smith: I’m going hell-for-leather for gold at Glasgow Games

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/17/weightlifting-zoe-smith-commonwealth-games-gold-glasgow

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The weightlifter Zoe Smith intends to “go hell for leather” in an effort to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, starting with a Commonwealth Games gold for England in Glasgow.

Smith is determined to continue her progress from London 2012, where she set a British record with a clean and jerk lift of 121kg. After recovering from a spell of injuries earlier this year, Smith delivered a bronze medal at the European Championships in Israel.

The Greenwich-born under-58kg lifter knows the hard work is starting for Rio, with the qualification process taking in many events after the Commonwealth Games and on to the world championships in Kazakhstan later this year.

Smith is determined to earn an Olympic place for Britain, rather than relying on a possible invitation from the International Weightlifting Federation.

“As a team, you have to earn a certain amount of points to get one spot and all the stronger teams, like Russia, they could have a world champion in every category, I reckon, if they tried. But we are not so strong on the world scene and will probably struggle to qualify [for] one place,” said Smith, whose breakthrough came at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi four years ago when she collected a bronze medal aged 16.

“There is also the wild card, which is how we have had Britons at the [Olympic] Games [before], so if you are consistently top 10 in the world rankings then they sometimes take pity on you and give you a wildcard, which is how I understand it.

“But I am just hoping to go hell for leather now to try to get myself a top-10 undisputed athlete and hopefully go [to Rio] for that reason if we don’t qualify a team [as of right].”

Smith added: “It is almost like a catch-22 situation, where you need to go to these events to get the points but you don’t want to go to the events and risk injury or do anything stupid. It is almost as if you have got to pick your battles.”

The veteran Welsh weightlifter Michaela Breeze, who won Commonwealth Games gold at Manchester 2002 and again in Melbourne four years later, with a 63kg silver in 2010 to add to her 2003 European bronze, has come out of retirement to compete in Glasgow. She will go head to head with Smith in the 58kg division.

Smith, 20, is looking forward to the experience of competing again at a major championship on British soil.

“With it just being in Glasgow I think it is a good opportunity,” she said. “Even though it is a Scottish Games, it is still the UK and I think there is going to be quite a lot of home supporters and real Team GB enthusiasts who have come up from all around the country to watch us compete.”