Sarah Davies credited the 'lion inside her' with inspiring her dramatic yet ultimately dominant victory in the women's 71kg weightlifting at Birmingham's NEC. 

Davies was in a class of her own as she powered to gold, finishing 15kg clear of her closest challenger, Canada’s Alexis Ashworth. 

The only person that looked like beating her was herself after she snatched a new personal best of 103kg to lead at the halfway mark.

But that almost materialised after she failed with her first attempt to clean and jerk 126kg, as Davis revealed she blacked out and temporarily lost vision with the doctor being called on stage.

However, she recovered to land the second attempt and secure the win.

When asked about her nervy finish, Davies said: “I just thought I would make it a bit more of a crowd-pleaser. The first one I was ready to go, I just misjudged it a little bit, it pulled me backwards and as that happens, it just sits a bit heavier on the windpipe. 

“The sound reverberated around the room, I lost vision for a little while but it’s one of those things that happens to some lifters and not others but I’m used to it. 

“It is just about getting deep breaths in when that happens, I’m used to it happening in training. You just have to take your time before you reset and go again.

“The lion in me came out to fight on that one, that's for sure. I wasn’t leaving it down to the third attempt so I just dug in for that second one. I knew it was for glory and it mattered.”

Davies’ overriding emotion was relief after upgrading her silver from the Gold Coast in 2018 and was delighted to end her curse of perennially picking up second place having also finished as runner-up in both the 2021 World and European Championships.

She added: “It was relief more than anything. It's hard when you know it is in the bag and all you have to do is put a score on the board.

“The tables are turning, we are ready now. A lot of second places but we came here for one job and one job only and that was to bring home the gold. The strike of 'Sarah takes silver’ is finally over.”