Otago novice weightlifters will be in the hunt for medals at the New Zealand Olympic championships in Christchurch over the next two days.
Bailey Lovett (20) and Grace Schrader (17) have only been lifting weights for a year and have made rapid progress with coach Mark White.
They both won South Island junior titles in Dunedin in August and are ranked highly for the national event.
Schrader, a pupil at St Hilda's Collegiate, comes from a dairy farm at Woodlands and proved her ability at the New Zealand secondary schools championships in Auckland last month.
She won the 69kg class and her clean and jerk of 70kg was the best female lift at the championships.
Her personal best performances are: snatch (50kg), clean and jerk (70kg) and total (120kg).
Lovett, a marine biology student at the University of Otago, comes from Bluff and will compete in the junior women's 63kg class.
Her best performances are: snatch (52kg), clean and jerk (65kg) and total (117kg).
Hannah Perkins (17), a pupil at St Hilda's, has been training with the squad for the last year but will miss the championships because of a shoulder injury. She will be in Christchurch as part of the support crew.
