Powerlifting at 61 gives 'so much joy'

"My friends and family are all chuffed to bits for me. They know I'm slightly bonkers, so they're not in the least bit surprised that I'm doing something like this."

After taking up powerlifting two years ago, Dee Atkins-Greig, from Warsash in Hampshire, was due to represent Great Britain at the World Bench Press Championships in Poland on Saturday.

"I mean, it doesn't happen overnight," the 61-year-old told the BBC. "I was amazed at the progress I made and I got so much joy out of it. It was absolutely brilliant."

Dee usually works as a full-time maths tutor and coach when she is not lifting heavy weights.

Known as Dorcas Henry during her time as a BBC South weather presenter, she said she originally set herself the challenge to deadlift her own body weight on her 60th.

But she said she ended up reaching that target earlier than expected and actually lifted 100kg, one and a quarter times her body weight, on the milestone birthday.

She said: "A guy who witnessed my 100kg deadlift said, 'you'd be really competitive as a Masters level'. And I'm going, 'you what? You mean this is a sport?'.

"So, I did a competition and then my coach suggested that I do a national competition. I did the British Bench Press and that got me an invite to do the World Bench Press Championships in Poland."

Dee will also represent England at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Winnipeg in September.

The maths tutor and coach said a "nice thing" since becoming a powerlifter had been inspiring women her age and younger to take up strength training.

"We all start to lose muscle mass once we hit our 30s, that's men and women, and then women have got the added problem when we hit perimenopause - the hormones go all over the place, we potentially start to lose calcium out of our bones."

She added: "If we want to go on being able to do what we love right into our 60s, 70s, 80s, then we need to stay strong. We need to keep our muscle, and strength-training is the best way to do that."

Explaining that her husband was her "biggest cheerleader", Dee said she hopes to keep doing the sport for a long time to come.

"That's my goal, to still be competitive 10 years from now."