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A mum in Havelock North has been smashing powerlifting records in her category and hopes to take her skills to a bigger stage this year.
Lesley Hames began her powerlifting journey about six years ago by chance while training in Havelock North.
Lesley Hames wants to break another powerlifting record in her category. Photo / Paul Taylor
“I kind of just fell into it. I was going to Flex Gym in Havelock and one of the PTs, their partner was a powerlifter. She put on a little seminar thing, and I decided to turn up and have a go at it,” Hames said.
“I found that I really enjoyed lifting heavy and I was quite good at it when I had no real training. That was about six years ago and I am still doing it now.”
This year will be the first time the 39-year-old solo mother will have ever travelled out of the country for a competition.
“I have always been a hobby lifter. I do it because I enjoy having something to work towards in the gym otherwise, I find that I have no direction.”
“At the start of last year, I changed to a different federation in New Zealand and things have just kind of got along in leaps and bounds and apparently this is the first year that we have been invited to Australia for this federation in a while.”
She said the trip would be a “great birthday gift” to herself as the competition, a push and pull (bench lift and deadlift) contest between competitors from NZ and Australia, is set to take place in Melbourne in December - the same month as her birthday.
Since March last year, she said she has broken 13 New Zealand lifting records for her age and weight class and a world record for her 170kg squat in the Women’s Wraps Sub Masters 100 division. That is similar to squatting the weight of three adult ewes.
The next record in her sights is the current record in her deadlift category, 185kg, but she doesn’t want to just beat it.
Hames’ goal is to break the record at the Global Powerlifting Committee New Zealand Nationals in August and do a 200kg deadlift by the end of the year. That is about how much a heavy adult Shetland pony weighs.
“I’ve attempted the world record for deadlift twice so far and failed it twice. So I am not going to fail it a third time,” she said.
“When I first started, I always thought that a 200-kilo deadlift, for a female, would be amazing but so unattainable. At my last comp in March, I did an 182.5 [kg deadlift] so I am not far away from 200 now.”
Lesley Hames runs fundraisers to get to competitions and she decided to sell socks this time because she often wears cool, colourful socks for competition. Graphic / Lesley Hames
She had run fundraisers for a few years now to help pay to get to competitions.
“I am a solo mum, so it is just me and the kids. Because it is my hobby I don’t have a lot of money to spend on it.”
She said her past fundraisers had typically been in a raffle-like format with one or two winners of hampers, but this year she was selling Jolly Soles socks to fundraise so everyone got something for their contribution.
“I wear quite cool, colourful socks for competition so I thought it was a cool idea.”
Eventually, she would like to compete at the world competition for her federation, Global Powerlifting Committee New Zealand, next year.
“Next year I think it is going to be held in Brazil, so there is quite a bit of chatter at the moment about sending a team over to Brazil. That would be amazing.”
To find out more about how to purchase socks to help Hames’ fundraiser, go to the Facebook page called Lesley’s Powerlifting Fundraising.
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz
