Jackie Wagstaff Interview

Sport: Powerlifting
Lives: Bury, near Manchester
Born: 27/03/71

Before getting into powerlifting, Jackie competed in athletics and represented GB in wheelchair racing at the European Championships. As part of her athletics training she would bench press heavy weights and got into powerlifting through that. Since then she competed in the 2006 World Championships where she finished 10th.

Interview Transcript

I'm Jackie Wagstaff and my sport is powerlifting.

Q How did you get into your sport?
A I've recently transferred, about 18 months ago from athletics over to powerlifting and when I finished training with athletics when I was in the gym doing some bench pressing, I was just curious to find out the maximum I could press and it kind of picked up from there really.

Q what does a typical day in your sport involve?
A Really my training days so its kind of work all day, I try and finish around 4 half 4 at night and get to the gym about half past five, train usually for an hour and a half. Which is mainly because I've only just got my own bench in the gym where I am based, mainly, the training is mainly kind of centred around using the bench.

Q What do you enjoy most about your sport?
A I think sort of the motivation because I think that I am sort of like compared to my body weight I'm bench pressing quite a good weight and am actually quite new to the sport. So I think the motivation to keep pushing that weight up really and keep increasing.

Q How do you relax when not training or competing?
A I like watching films I like watching films at home, getting a video in, I tend to do quite a bit of reading which I find helps relax me.

Q What do you hope to achieve in your sport in the future?
A Hopefully by the end of this year try and get the qualifying mark to try and get selected for Beijing obviously in the long term 2012 where hopefully I will gain a medal position. I do think that Beijing is quite early for me I've only been in the sport for 18 months so London would be quite longer term.  

Q What advice would you give to someone wishing to take up your sport?
A I think obviously try and get someone on board that can help with training programmes first, hold regular meetings with them and try and plan out the training and just keep focused on the training.