An athlete's first competition when they take up a new sport can often be a daunting task but Armidale's Bronte Wood is ready to jump in the deep end.
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She will step out for NSW Weightlifting's 85th Anniversary Open, to be held at Sydney Olympic Park's Quaycentre this Friday.
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The competition will be one of the biggest in the state, with it due to be held in conjunction with the NSW senior, under-15 and youth weightlifting events.
The NSW event replaces the national championships which were set down for this week but, with coronavirus restrictions, were cancelled.
Wood began weightlifting less than six months ago at PCYC Armidale and hasn't looked back.
At first, she began lifting for fun and fitness but after local weightlifting expert Brian Flint caught sight of her, she started looking at the competitive side of the sport.
"I started coming with some friends then one day I was doing some of my exercises, not the best, and Brian came over and started helping me," Wood said.
"He was helping me train and then he got me onto a coach in Sydney.
"He has got me so many opportunities I would never have had if he had never have helped me.
"He went out of his way, he wasn't going to be getting anything out of it."
That coach in Sydney is former Australian Olympic weightlifting coach Luke Borreggine.
Borreggine is coaching Wood for the competition in Sydney and believes her to be a "promising" prospect in the world of weightlifting.
"She will be extremely nervous but it is a start," he said. "She is young and she has plenty of time."
When he first starting working with the 18-year-old, it was mostly via distance.
She said he helped her develop technique and then she added more weight.
"When I first started working with Luke in Sydney it was not a lot of heavy weights at all, it was just learning a lot of technique," Wood said.
"I have gone down there once, I talk to him on the phone at least every other day and he will send me my program for the day and I just send him videos of what I am doing.
"After this competition I will start going a lot more frequently."
Borreggine said Wood will be part of a three-woman team for the competition, which includes a current world champion, and he hopes she will learn from the eye-opening experience.
Wood will compete in snatch and clean jerk events where they have three attempts at each.
Borreggine said "if she can give me four out of six attempts, I will be very happy".