{"id":25997,"date":"2026-07-31T14:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:51:00","slug":"it-specialist-to-represent-wales-in-powerlifting-at-commonwealth-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997","title":{"rendered":"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"height: auto;\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>An IT specialist within United Welsh&#8217;s Technology and Transformation team has been selected to represent Wales in Powerlifting at the Commonwealth Championships in Canada \u2013 despite only starting the sport three years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mel Rawsthorne, who works at United Welsh as Software and Development Principal, will be competing as part of the Wales team at the Championships in September.<\/p>\n<p>Mel, who lives in Cardiff, started strength training around three years ago when she was looking to take up a new form of exercise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>She said:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-229329 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/businessnewswales.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-e1785502668217-120x120.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\"\/>\u201cDuring my first session the focus was deadlifts, which turned out to be one of my stronger lifts. The coach taking the session assumed I had trained before, and when I told him I hadn&#8217;t he looked at the weights I was lifting and said, \u2018That is not normal&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the next few weeks, he kept suggesting I should compete as I was not far away from some of the records set in competitions. So, I thought I would give it a go. I did my first competition that summer and properly fell in love with Powerlifting.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve done a lot of training now, but when I first started out it was just natural strength. I don&#8217;t think women are as encouraged to be strong. I guess men are a little bit more when they are younger, but women not so much. So, I was quite late in finding out I had all that natural strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Just a year after her first competition, Mel broke the Welsh deadlift record by about 20kgs. Soon after she competed for Wales and finished fourth in the British Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Mel broke the Welsh deadlift record for a second time in the Welsh Championships, lifting 240kg. She also broke the Welsh total record too, totalling 572.5kg, meaning no other woman in Welsh Powerlifting has lifted more.<\/p>\n<p>She trains for around 10 hours per week and says flexible working at United Welsh helps her schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Now Mel is looking forward to competing in the Commonwealth Championships and is hopeful of a podium finish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mel added:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s been very surreal how it&#8217;s all happened so quickly.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m really looking forward to the experience and am incredibly proud to represent Wales.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are about four of us very close to third place, so the dream would be to make the podium at the Commonwealth, but it&#8217;s going to be a tough fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span id=\"tho-end-content\" style=\"display: block; visibility: hidden;\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/businessnewswales.com\/it-specialist-to-represent-wales-in-powerlifting-at-commonwealth-championships\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An IT specialist within United Welsh&#8217;s Technology and Transformation team has been selected to represent Wales in Powerlifting at the Commonwealth Championships in Canada \u2013 despite only starting the sport three years ago. Mel Rawsthorne, who works at United Welsh as Software and Development Principal, will be competing as part of the Wales team at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":25998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-powerlifting-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An IT specialist within United Welsh&#8217;s Technology and Transformation team has been selected to represent Wales in Powerlifting at the Commonwealth Championships in Canada \u2013 despite only starting the sport three years ago. Mel Rawsthorne, who works at United Welsh as Software and Development Principal, will be competing as part of the Wales team at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T14:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/businessnewswales.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-e1785502668217-120x120.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sport Business\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sport Business\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sport Business\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/612730a5f8efd633e964fabb6f224799\"},\"headline\":\"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T14:51:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997\"},\"wordCount\":419,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Powerlifting News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997\",\"name\":\"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships - World Bodybuilding News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T14:51:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/612730a5f8efd633e964fabb6f224799\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":700},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=25997#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"World Bodybuilding News\",\"description\":\"Data, Rankings, Results.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/612730a5f8efd633e964fabb6f224799\",\"name\":\"Sport Business\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sport Business\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?author=1069\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships - World Bodybuilding News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships - World Bodybuilding News","og_description":"An IT specialist within United Welsh&#8217;s Technology and Transformation team has been selected to represent Wales in Powerlifting at the Commonwealth Championships in Canada \u2013 despite only starting the sport three years ago. Mel Rawsthorne, who works at United Welsh as Software and Development Principal, will be competing as part of the Wales team at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997","og_site_name":"World Bodybuilding News","article_published_time":"2026-07-31T14:51:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/businessnewswales.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-e1785502668217-120x120.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Sport Business","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sport Business","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997"},"author":{"name":"Sport Business","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612730a5f8efd633e964fabb6f224799"},"headline":"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships","datePublished":"2026-07-31T14:51:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997"},"wordCount":419,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png","articleSection":["Powerlifting News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997","url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997","name":"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships - World Bodybuilding News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png","datePublished":"2026-07-31T14:51:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612730a5f8efd633e964fabb6f224799"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/united-welsh-it-specialist-mel-to-represent-wales-in-powerli-1.png","width":1200,"height":700},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=25997#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IT Specialist to Represent Wales in Powerlifting at Commonwealth Championships"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/","name":"World Bodybuilding News","description":"Data, Rankings, Results.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612730a5f8efd633e964fabb6f224799","name":"Sport Business","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=initials&r=g","caption":"Sport Business"},"url":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?author=1069"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}