DAVE Venables earned a brave bronze at the World Weightlifting Championships after being struck down with a virus on the eve of the competition.

"It started off with just one of the team getting ill," said the Billericay based 43-year-old.

"But, two or three days later, the whole squad had it.

"It must have been something on the plane I guess and, come the end of the tournament, I reckon around 30 per cent of everyone competing had this virus.

"It was obviously frustrating and we couldn't take strong medicine to get rid of it either because of the strict drug testing in competitions like this."

Venables battled through, but revealed he had mixed memories of the Austria based event.

"I went there to win and I really thought this was going to be my year," he added.

"But when you can't breathe properly it's very hard to lift weights so in many ways I guess I should be pleased.

"It's frustrating though because the 280 kilos weight which won, I have lifted in training."