UNSURPRISINGLY for someone used to lifting the equivalent of a small motorbike above her head, Jenna Myers isn’t accustomed to taking the easy path in life.
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The sporting career of Frankford’s weightlifting champion has featured almost as many hurdles as Sally Pearson’s, but her latest national title again raises the prospect of a long-awaited and elusive Olympic appearance.
‘‘Words cannot describe what it would mean to me,’’ Myers said about making the Australian team for Rio de Janeiro next year.
‘‘It would be complete elation. Everything that I’ve been through, both the mishaps and the happier times, it would just mean the world to me and my family who all know what I’ve been through.
‘‘I’m more determined than ever to make it and put everything straight, and to become the first female Tasmanian weightlifter to make an Olympics would be brilliant.’’
Claiming the over-75 kilogram title at the national championships in Victoria represented the latest up in an eventful decade-long roller-coaster career.
The 29-year-old has overcome selection sagas, a supplement ban, back-to-back shoulder injuries and a collapse at the weigh-in during last year’s Commonwealth Games after successfully losing 13kg in three weeks to make weight.
‘‘Money cannot buy those experiences,’’ she said.
‘‘You learn a lot from those and you can relate to how you pull yourself up and keep going as a tougher character determined to give it 100 per cent.’’
Even Myers’ latest success was not stress-free after a work-related injury presented yet another obstacle.
‘‘I had a ligament injury to my thumb and had to have it surgically reattached,’’ she said.
‘‘I thought it was a bad sprain and left it hoping it would get better but it didn’t, and it was only when I had to have it reattached that I realised the severity of the injury.
‘‘The thumb is very important in weightlifting and it has taken six weeks in plaster and another six weeks since to heal.
‘‘This was the first time I had lifted in competition since then, and I had to have it strapped up to keep it in place and nurse it through. I just didn’t want to undo all that hard work.
‘‘I was grateful that everything held in place and just relieved to be back on the platform again.’’
Despite the injury, Myers produced an 87kg snatch and 116kg clean and jerk for a 203kg total, 9kg ahead of Evandale’s Belinda Van Tienen, who now represents Victoria.
‘‘After an injury you start doubting yourself as to whether you are strong enough, and this was a huge relief to know I was heading in the right direction and hopefully towards the world champs and even Rio.’’
After missing out on the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, Myers made the Australian team for New Delhi four years later and finished sixth with a 208kg total.
The 11th-hour decision to again try and make the 75kg division in Glasgow scuppered Myers’ 2014 Commonwealth campaign, since when she has resolved to target the lighter category.
‘‘Since Glasgow I’ve been able to keep the weight off and now I’ve got just 2kg to lose to get to 75 and I will stay at that in the build-up to Rio to increase my chances of qualifying.’’
The four-time Oceania champion’s next goal is to make the Australian team for the world championships in Texas in November, as part of an all-too-familiar process to earn Australia a spot in the Olympic weightlifting tournament.
Myers was among the lifters who went through the same gruelling campaign in 2012 only to watch another athlete, who had opted out, claim the national title and the ticket to London.
‘‘It’s certainly a challenge but I understand the need to compete at the worlds to gain that one position because Australia needs those points. Up until the Rio trials, it’s basically a team sport, but then it’s down to who wins on the day.’’