Hayley Whiting will be wearing the silver fern once again when she competes at the Mini Pacific Games in December. Photo supplied.Mid Canterbury’s Hayley Whiting is looking forward to getting the chance to prove herself in her second international event when the Mini Pacific Games come around at the start of December.

The weightlifter is coming off a busy winter of competitions, which included a trip to Melbourne, as well as competing at the South Island Championships, the North Island Championships and the National Championships.

After winning the South Island Championships for her weight class (under 75), and putting in a strong performance at the North Island Championships as a guest competitor, the national championships did not quite go to plan.

Whiting missed all three of her snatches, ending her competition there and then.

“Sadly it is that kind of sport where you only get three chances and I missed three and that was my competition over,” she said.

The trip to Vanuatu will be her second international event, and she has her eyes set on hitting the New Zealand international grade, which will see her needing to hit 192kg combined across all the disciplines.

“Any chance you get to represent your country is a massive honour,” she said.

While next year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast are out of the question, Whiting said that the Commonwealth Games in 2022 are a long-term goal.

“Realistically I am not at an Olympic level and that is something you have to be honest about, but I haven’t been doing this for very long and to already be involved with several New Zealand teams is really special,” she said.

Only 24 years old, Whiting regularly finds herself competing against women older than herself, and hopes to have plenty more years left competing.

Getting to the top of the weightlifting scene does not come easy.

“I train five or six times a week and that is on top of working a full time job and trying to get some sleep in there somewhere,” she said.

“It is pretty focused work, doing a lot of stuff to work on technique and stuff like squats, so I guess it is pretty specific.”

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 16 November 2017