A Mount Maunganui woman has earned herself a place at this year's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Hayley Whiting will be competing in the Women's 87kg weight class, and is ranked top 5 in the category, meaning she is a prime contender for the podium.

The 29-year-old scored this spot due to her record setting 125kg clean and jerk at the Weightlifting New Zealand International held in Auckland.

Hayley has been competing in weightlifting for six years, first starting in 2016 in Christchurch.

'I played for a couple of New Zealand teams when the sport was first getting off the ground here, when the qualifying status wasn't so high. On one trip that I was on I met my coach, Ray Everest, who lives in Mount Maunganui,” says Hayley.

Hayley began her journey with her coach remotely when she was still living in Christchurch for about 18 months.

'I then decided I wanted to take it a step further by moving to Mount Maunganui in January 2020, as I was still living in Christchurch and was training at a gym with no coach.”

'It's mainly been about showing up and training hard every day. I had the goal of qualifying for this Commonwealth Games a few years ago, which is why I decided to make that big lifechanging move.”

The weightlifter says she felt a mix of emotions achieving her qualifying lift.

'It validated all of the decisions I made to get to that point, it was a huge relief, and I was pretty emotional about it.”

'I am extremely happy about achieving the lift; I still can't believe it happened.”

Hayley says that falling in love with the weightlifting side of CrossFit in 2013 is what made her motivated to pursue the sport.

'I loved the feeling of being strong, and I'm quite competitive so that side of me took over and said, ‘I could be decent at this.'”

The discipline of the sport is another element that has kept Hayley going.

'I have to make sure I'm eating well, sleeping well, and getting my head in the right space to perform a lift.”

'A 20-week training cycle can lead up to about 6 minutes on the platform in a competition, which feels amazing when it pays off.”

Hayley has set up a GiveALittle page to help her get the same training volume as some of her international peers.

'Our trip is funded, but the athletes I will be competing against are all full-time athletes who are paid to train. In New Zealand, weightlifting like many other sports, is not funded like it is overseas.”

'At the moment, I am having to continue to work full-time while keeping up with training.”

'The page has been set up to give me the opportunity to take some time off of work in order to put more hours into training and preparing for the Commonwealth Games.”

The GiveALittle page will give Hayley the opportunity to have a similar training schedule to her opponents, who she will be going up against later this year.

'I am currently ranked fourth in The Commonwealth, and the girls I will be going up against are more than likely all full-time athletes. I have a good chance at getting on the podium, so the goal of the fundraiser is to be able to drop back my work hours while still making ends meet.”

For more information on Hayley's journey to the Commonwealth Games, or to donate to her page, visit https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/hayleys-quest-for-the-podium.