ZOE Newson says she will be doing her level best to make people proud after being named in the Team England squad to compete at the Commonwealth Games.

The Para Powerlifter from East Bergholt will be aiming to add more medals to her impressive collection at Birmingham 2022, which gets underway at the end of July.

Newson has already enjoyed plenty of powerlifting success, having competed at the Paralympics in each of Tokyo 2020, Rio 2016 and London 2012.

However, the 30-year-old, who was born with a growth hormone deficiency, says it still means a lot to receive another international selection for a major competition.

Newson said: "It's always nice to represent England.

"I always want to do my best and make people proud.

"It's important to me, because of the amount of support I have from my family and friends.

"I don't want to let them down.

"I know they say that they're proud of me no matter what but it's always my goal, to make them proud.

"Like with all of the competitions I've been at, I'll try my best and hopefully I'll succeed and make people proud.

"I'm slowly getting there with my training, so I'm quite happy with that.

"There's a lot of sacrifices that have to be made and sometimes, people don't realise just what you have to do.

"You have to train, lose weight and with family to look after as well, so it's quite hard to fit everything in.

"But I have a lot of support behind me from my family and friends to help me manage everything, so I'm quite happy with that."

Gazette:

Newson is looking forward to competing at this summer's Commonwealth Games, not least as the event is a lot closer to home than last year's Tokyo Paralympics.

Due to Covid restrictions, the Suffolk-born powerlifter was prevented from travelling to Tokyo with her family but will have their support at the event, this time around.

"Unlike Tokyo, this one isn't that far away," said Newson, who first competed at the Commonwealth Games back in 2010.

"My son (Duncan) is going to come and watch me.

"He's three now, so he'll know a bit more about what's happening - I may get a bit emotional!"