ABBEY Wood weightlifting sensation Zoe Smith took the silver medal in the 63kg weight category at the world youth championships in the early hours of this morning in Lima, Peru.

Smith, 17, lifted 91kg in the snatch, representing a personal best by five kg and smashing her previous British U23 record of 86kg, set at the British senior championships in Kilmarnock last June.

The 91kg lift gave her second place overall in the snatch phase of the competition.

In the clean and jerk, Smith lifted 110kg, adding eight kg to her personal best of 102kg, also set at the same British championships last year.

She opened on a new U23 British record of 105kg, before moving up to 110kg, but failing on her final lift of 115kg.

This lift gave her third place overall in the clean and jerk phase of the competition and a combined total of 201kg, a new U23 British record by 13kg, securing the silver medal behind the Russian Diana Akhmetova.

At 17, this was Smith’s last opportunity to compete at world youth level, which she first did in Thailand three years ago, lifting a combined total of 169kg.

She said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. I was feeling under a lot of pressure to do well here because everyone kept telling me they felt sure I was going to win a medal.

“I texted my mum to ask her not to be disappointed if I came home with nothing, although I did admit that I’d be secretly disappointed if I didn’t.

“Despite my success in Delhi, I kind of felt I'd let myself down with my performance.

“So to come here and compete this well on a world stage has really given me so much encouragement and reinforces my belief that I made the right decision to put my studies on hold to move to Leeds and train full-time with the national squad.”

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