Lifting is her game

By Dion Teasdale
YARRA Valley residents will be keeping a close eye on the weightlifting competition at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games next month.
Local girl Jacquie White, who was born in Lilydale and grew up in Yarra Glen, has been selected for the Australia weightlifting team.
Ms White, who attended Yarra Glen Primary School and Mount Lilydale College before heading to Swinburne University in Hawthorn, has been tipped as a medal contender.
She lives in Hawthorn and trains at the Victorian Weightlifting Centre, but will head to the Australian Institute of Sport later this month for three weeks of intensive training in the lead up to the games.
Before heading to Canberra though, Ms White visited St Brigids Primary School in Healesville last week with her father Kevin White to give students an insight into the life of an elite sportswoman.
During her presentation Ms White fielded questions from the students such as: “What shoes do weightlifters wear?”, “Have you ever dropped the weights?”, and the inevitable, “How big are your muscles?”
Ms White, now 23, told the students she began weightlifting 10 years ago, that her best lift to date has been 100kg, and that she spends up to 20 hours a week training in the gym.
She said she had competed at national and international levels, at the World Junior and Senior Weightlifting championships in places such as Italy, Canada and South-East Asia.
Despite her previous successes though, Ms White said the approaching Commonwealth Games would be a career highlight.
“It is an honour to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games and it is very exciting to be doing so in Melbourne,” she said.
“It means I’ll have my family and friends around me to egg me on..”
Scheduled to compete in the 58kg class on Saturday, 18 March, Ms White had to overcome a major hip injury last year to be selected for the Games, and she is keeping a level head about the challenge she faces.
“It will be great to be part of such a high profile international, multi-sport event and it would be great to win a medal,” she said.
“However, there is a job to be done and for the next month or so I have to focus on doing the job to the best of my ability.”
At the conclusion of Ms White’s visit the students gave her their support with a rousing rendition of the nation’s unofficial sporting chant, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi, Oi.”