Gudrun Schmidberger is someone who really can prove small can be strong.

> Aged 50 and five ft and weighing 52.4kg the retired marketing > executive from South Croydon has just won the IWF World Masters > Championship weight lifting title in her weight category.

> She took gold in the contest in Limassol Cyprus representing her > native Germany on October 30. But for Gudrun who took up weightlifting > 22 years ago the win was nothing new as she has been named the German > National Champion in the 48kg and 50kg class seven times. This makes > her number one in the > 2011 Hall of Fame Survey of Leading Masters Lifters having gained 68 > points in 15 championships.

> “I did judo from the age of seven and was a Black Belt when my judo > coach suggested I try weight training to improve my strength and power,” she says.

> After a short time at the gym one of the coaches made her try > weightlifting.

> When she was 29 she started competing at the London weightlifting > championships and came first in the 56kg class. She has competed in > every World Masters Championship since 1996 and four World Masters > Games and is currently the European Masters Women’s Representative.

> Her best lifts are 62.5kg Snatch and 70 Clean and Jerk.

> She has lived in South Croydon for 27 years. Her work in marketing > brought her to London and she decided to make it her home. She now > trains at Crystal Palace four times a week and coaches weightlifters > and other athletes and is hoping to volunteer at next year’s Olympics.

> She is also a member of Purley Downs Golf Club which she joined just > over a year ago and has already had her handicap cut to 29, proving you > are never too old to try something new.