Denholme’s Rebekah Tiler has taken part in her first elite squad training sessions at Loughborough University.

The Bingley Grammar School pupil, who recently defied intense heat and humidity to win double Commonwealth Championship gold in Malaysia, was among five females to attend in the Midlands.

Natasha Perdue, Emily Godley, Faye Pitman and Mercy Brown also trained as part of the new elite squads, and the quintet of top-ranked British women lifters attended as they have the potential to progress and represent Great Britain at major senior international events.

Lifters are not only invited based on their current performance level but on their character skills (hard-working, positive, focused, motivated, accountable, respectful and honest).

The main goal of the elite squads is to have the best lifters training together to create a motivating environment.

It is also an opportunity to explore factors limiting progress and to find ways to support the lifter and their coach.

The coaching on the squads is led by British Weightlifting’s head coach Tamas Feher, but Eddie Halstead, Tiler’s coach at Mytholmroyd, assisted with the women’s squad, who took part in a strength diagnostic project delivered by the English Institute of Sport.

Alongside collecting information on strength, the lifters’ snatch and clean and jerk were captured on video and analysed with weightlifting software that provides details of the biomechanics of the lifts, including the force production at the three key positions, bar path and bar speed.

In addition to the strength diagnostics and technical analysis, nutritional support was provided, where lifters had to the opportunity to ask advice and have their body composition measured.