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Gymnast-turned-weightlifter Alethea Boon out to prove age no barrier to success

April 7, 2018

Alethea Boon’s "over the moon" after her record setting lift last night and is proving success in sport has no age limit.

The 34-year-old finished fifth in the 58kg class in the weightlifting last night, managing to set a new New Zealand record for the total after lifting 81kg in the snatch and a massive 100kg in the clean and jerk.

"I did put the work in to get there, so I can believe it, but in December I got injured so I didn’t know if I was able to come.

"So as soon as I got injured I wrote down a goal on a piece of paper, I wrote down 181 and I circled it… today I got it."

Gold Coast-bound Alethea Boon will go to her third Games, this time in a new sport.

It's been 20 years since Boon became New Zealand’s youngest competitor in the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in gymnastics.

Since then she went on to compete in Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games and retired from gymnastics at 24 after competing at university in the US.

In 2010 she suffered a blockage in the arteries of her lungs after surgery, leaving her unable to walk due to lack of breath. But she persevered and gained her strength back soon going on to compete in CrossFit.

Now back competing in the Commonwealth Games, the Suva-born Kiwi told 1 NEWS she’s learned a lot from her past.

"Previous games I was an adolescent, I don’t think I was mentally prepared to put the best version of myself up there, as an adult, you kind of know what to expect.

"I was telling the coaches out the back that I can actually soak in what’s going on and not get overwhelmed by it, instead use it as fuel and it helped me get those lifts up today."

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