Image by White Lights Media
This February, Sara Cardinale won a gold medal in the British Equipped Bench Press Championships (U69kg) after getting into powerlifting a year ago and joining the Merton Weightlifting Club. Outside of powerlifting, Sara is a PhD researcher in the School of Electronic Engineering, within the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI and Music.
Commenting on her championships journey, Sara said: "The training regimen leading up to the competition was incredibly demanding, especially since I had to qualify for nationals. From September to January, I was taking part in competitions monthly to improve the competition standards, and doing at least three training sessions at the gym each week. Finally, in January, I tried and succeeded to lift the qualifying weight in a competition, meaning I had officially qualified for the nationals.
Balancing all that training with my PhD studies was incredibly stressful, but looking back, it was worth it. On the day of the competition, despite a few hiccups, the feeling of lifting that winning weight was indescribable.
Joining the club, my main aim was to get stronger. Not only did I hit my strength goals and will continue to train hard, but I also accomplished things I never thought possible and connected with some truly amazing people along the way."
Many congratulations to Sara from everyone in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science!