King’s High School year 10 pupil Jeremy Manteiga, 14, won gold for the second time in a row at the national secondary schools weightlifting championships in Auckland earlier this month.
Jeremy competed in the under-15 men’s under-73kg category and lifted his personal best (PB) snatch weight, 66kg, and a clean-and-jerk weight of 76kg, for an overall combined weight of 142kg.
He said he started training about three to four years ago and had no idea what weightlifting was about until his mother introduced him to some lifters at Otago Weightlifting.
He trained three times a week from 4.20pm to 5.30pm leading up to the competition.
"There’s like a five-week cycle and you build up slowly and each cycle is like you can have different amounts of reps.
"You kind of start light and then week 4 you kind of max out and go for your PBs."
He did not have a special diet and only had a bit of protein powder after training, he said.
Out of his six siblings he was the biggest and strongest, so he was in charge of opening tightly sealed jars and bottles.
