Emily Campbell: Brilliant bronze for Bulwell ace in Olympic weightlifting

Campbell, who made history by taking silver in the Tokyo Games three years ago, had to wait until the final day of the Games before finally competing in the +81kg competition – but it was worth the wait.

The Bulwell star was in great form in the first part of the competition – the snatch – lifting 119kg, 123kg and finally 126kg for a new personal best.

And she continued her great form into the clean and jerk section of the competition, opening with a great lift of 162kg for a final total of 288 and second Olympic medal and a new personal best overall total.

Defending Olympic champion Li Wenwen of China took gold again with an imperious display, lifting 136kg in the snatch and 173kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 309, while Park Hyejeong of South Korea lifted 168kg for a total of 299 to take silver.

Afterwards, she said winning bronze in Paris was just as special as the silver medal in Tokyo.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “This was a lot tougher than Tokyo, the standard was so, so high, I really to pull it out of the bag.

"This road (to Paris) has been really long.

"In Tokyo, I was new to the sport, I was enjoying things, everything was great and it was a bonus medal.

"But this one really, really came from the heart because we’ve had a tough year building up, a tough 18 months really, but I pulled it out at the right time and I could not be more elated with my performance.

"And actually, it was a PB peformance as well, so you can’t really complain when you do that.”

Campbell also paid tribute to her family and supporters who were able to come and watch her and cheer her on at the venue, having been unable to in Tokyo because of the Covid pandemic.

She continued: “It’s been absolutely nuts, the amount of faces I saw in the audience, it was like having a British crowd, it was insane.

"When we were out in Tokyo, we were like ‘oh, it wasn’t too bad without the fans’ but here, these guys meant everything, absolutely everything."

Campbell highlighted the confident start she made to the competition as a key factor in her success and said it had been her gameplan to make a statement early on to the rest of the field with a strong snatch element to the contest.

She said: “I’ve been away for a while, I’ve not competed on the international scene for a while so perhaps these girls might have forgotten what I can so, so I just wanted to remind them and snatch is the weaker one of my two, so I knew if I could come out and snatch really, really well, then I was set up really, really well to get a medal."

Campbell also highlighted the inspiration she gives to other women about being proud to be strong and powerful.

She said: I knew I was in really good shape and I just wanted to give it my all and I’m so glad I got rewarded.”