COMING back from serious injury to realise her dream of representing Scotland in international competition is something Kayleigh Noble worked hard to make happen.
The Inverness athlete has been called up by her country to compete at the Commonwealth Powerlifting and Bench Press Championships in Canada in September.
She has been recognised as one of the leading powerlifters in the country and will represent Scotland against top athletes from Commonwealth countries in Winnipeg in two months time.
It has been an incredible turnaround for Noble, who was out of action for seven months after suffering a serious back injury which put her ambitions in jeopardy.
However, determined not to give up on her dream of competing for Scotland, she worked hard to bounce back and being selected.
Noble (22) says it has been a long road to get back to full recovery. She says receiving national selection is the proudest moment of her life.
She said: “It has been quite a hard road as not long after competing at the British Championships, I injured my back and I ended up in recovery for about seven months.
“It happened when I was deadlifting and I felt a tweak in my back.
“That week I tried to pick up 20kg plates and even bending over to tie my shoelaces, I couldn’t do that without experiencing pain.
“I had to pull back on training for a long time. I went to physios to try and rehabilitate and regain the strength in my back. It was a long painful process over the course of seven months.
“For a wee while, it really knocked me, álong with my ambition and drive to continue.
“There was a lot of times that when I was training that I would leave crying. Things that used to be easy for me, I couldn’t do.
“But with the support of my coach, friends and family, I worked so hard to get my fitness back.
“I gained the determination back not just for me, but for everyone who believed in me, I didn’t want to let them down and that is what got me here.
“It took a lot of hard work and rehabilitation to try and get back up at the level where I could get selected for this.
“It was really bad circumstances at the time, but I am so proud to bounce back and achieve what I have.”
Noble, who works as an admin assistant, is still a relative newcomer to powerlifting, having only been involved in the sport for around two years.
She is a member of Highland Powerlifting Club that are based at GYM 300 on Carsegate Road North in Inverness.
She was inspired by seeing friends being called up to represent Scotland in international competition and wanted to experience it for herself.
She said: “I started my powerlifting journey over two years ago.
“I was always into the gym but never in a serious sense.
“I met my boyfriend in the gym who asked if I was ever into powerlifting.
“He helped me get into it and created a small programme to follow. Since then, I have fallen in love with the sport.
“It wasn’t just a sport for me, it was a happy place where I would go to the gym. I would speak to a bunch of different people. Seeing those small improvements day to day is where I found my love for it.
“I remember a few of my friends got picked for the previous Commonwealth Championships.
“ I just remember seeing how well they did representing Scotland. I thought to myself that I really wanted to do that.
“When I found out when the next Commonwealth Championship selection was happening, I decided to work really hard and train as hard as I could to be selected to represent my country.
“The qualifying total was 367.5kg in total weight of what you can lift.
“But if you can lift the total it was a selection of different athletes. Whoever was the highest in that range got picked. When I got picked, I cried.
“I remember I was on the phone to my friend and when I read the email, I just started crying, I was so happy.
She has competed at competitions across the UK, but this is will be the first time she will test herself at international level. She is looking forward to the experience and will be targeting returning home with a medal.
She said: “The first ever competition I took part in was designed for first timers in August 2024. I went in with zero expectations and managed to win which was really good and endearing. It proved to me it was something that I can do really well.”
Speaking about the Commonwealth Championships, she said: “I am doing two disciplines, one will be bench only on September 17 and I will be doing full power squat, bench and deadlift on September 19. I am guessing the competition I will be up against will be quite strong.
“But I am determined to come back with some sort of silverware.”
