A 17-year-old powerlifter from Salford has become a national champion for the third time in a row.
Tiffany Pilnikova took gold at the national powerlifting championship in the -43kg Sub-Junior National category.
The teenager, who trains at Barton Athletic Club in Eccles, now holds four British records for a 95kg squat, a bench press of 57.5kg, and a deadlift of 120kg, with a combined total record 272.5kg – as well becoming a world champion in 2023.
Tiffany said: “I couldn’t believe it, I am absolutely speechless. I always compete against myself, and I am doing that every year.
“When I first started this, I never thought it would get this far.”
She joked: “I don’t think anyone believes me when I tell them.
“They don’t see me as this ‘hench’ person or a bodybuilder type, I look like a normal person but when people realise I can lift three times my own bodyweight they often are amazed.”
She added: “When you tell people the ratios it makes people more impressed, but everyone around me is just so proud.”
She has big ambitions for the future.
She continued: “I have a big goal for this year, and I want to get a world record for one of my lifts.
“I would like to also go up a category, and I want to be able to beat my idol Tiffany Chapon in the future, but she is very strong.”
She will have a chance to do so at the World Championships coming up this year in Costa Rica, and will be working as hard as she can to achieve success.
But she also spoke of the importance of rest and not overstressing the muscles.
She added: “You can’t push yourself too hard, you can’t go 100% every day – and we are putting a lot of focus into training, rest, and food.
“But from working with my mum, we have worked out what is best for me – and our relationship, the patience is good for us.”
Her mum and coach Lenka said: “It is amazing to see what she has achieved, because I started this sport seven years ago, but she has shown that she has such strength at such a young age, it is unbelievable.
“She is coming from a gymnastics background, and all her life she thought she would never do another sport other than that.
“So, when she tried different sports, she realised her potential, I never pushed her into it – but now we can see the success it is just amazing.
“She is a big inspiration to a lot of young people in the gym, and her name is on the wall of the gym – and she always gets recognised in the gym as the world champion, so it is really nice.”
“We have been training together, and we have been able to see the ups and downs. We always think about what the goal is, and she has had the experience of training on good days and the bad ones – and together we know there is always another day.
“I used to be her gymnastic coach, I have always wanted to be supportive with her aspirations, and when she started Olympic weightlifting, I did the same then.”
Lenka added: “I want to be involved with the children, and that is the most important thing – I just love seeing the success and making people feel comfortable in their own body and seeing the final results.”
Lenka has achieved her own success in the sport – breaking records herself and competing in high level competitions.
She said: “It makes me proud, and is a good example for young people in Salford, because they don’t know how strong they are until they try the sport.
“She is only getting stronger and stronger, as she continues to grow into a beautiful strong lady – and she is definitely going to be stronger than me.”
The support from Barton Athletic Club has also been crucial.
She added: “The gym have been amazing; powerlifting is a self-funded sport – so it can be quite pricey for the international competitions.
“As a single-mum I would never be able to afford it, but the club have reassured me to not worry about it, and they are helping us take Tiffany to the worlds.”
She continued: “They have been supporting us and have been like a family to us. They also helped her to go to Malta last year, so without them we would not be able to do this – it is true community gym.
“It is so reassuring that they are supportive, and without them she wouldn’t be able to represent Great Britain – so they are amazing with the travelling and financial support.
“But we will also be setting up a fundraiser to help with the financial support, so they don’t have to pay for everything.”
Lenka continued: “And as she wants to break the world records this year – it will be exciting, and we will put the work in to see what we can do.”
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