Ray Cavanagh’s Palace of Art Weightlifting Club continued their hot run of form at the weekend by grabbing three gold medals at the British Youth under-17 championships at Crystal Palace.

The club took three lifters on the long drive down, and all came away as champions. 

In the 44kg class Stephanie McDiarmid set seven new personal bests and exceeded her own expectations to win her first British title.

Stephanie has only been doing weights for a short time and this was her second competition and her first British championships.

Colette Will (53kg class) had an attempt disallowed in the snatch and also in the clean and jerk, though it was still enough to finish top.

Mark Fitzpatrick had a battle with Jake Davis from Wales in the 85kg class and it was a hard fought tussle. 

Mark eventually won the battle on his very last lift of 99kg in the clean and jerk, equalling the same total as Davis but winning the title by having the lighter bodyweight.

He completed a hat trick of personal bests on the way.

“Taking three lifters down to London and coming back with three British youth champions was very satisfying,” said coach Cavanagh. 

“Scottish weightlifting is starting to produce some very good talent for the future.”