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The overwhelming will to succeed combined with the determination to be the best she possibly can has seen the diminutive Broadlands Park weightlifter, Portia Vries (48 kg and 1, 49 metres tall), beat poverty and incredible odds stacked up against her to become the best weightlifter in South Africa in her division. Her rise to the top reads like a movie script as her incredible drive, hours and hours of practice (often more than 30 hours a week) and many sacrifices saw her add a long list of titles, medals and trophies to her name.

Portia, who turns 24 in July, is the current South African Weightlifting Champion in the 48 kg division (a title she has held since 1998) and is also the SA record holder in the 53 kg division and has also been the African Champion (in the 48 kg division) from 2002 to 2006.

Among her many other achievements are: three silver medals at the All African Games in 2007; WP Sportswoman of the Year in 2007; WP and Western Cape Sportswoman of the Year in 2005; she has broken more than 40 SA records since she started weightlifting 11 years ago and also won a silver medal at the Olympic Youth Festival in Australia in 2005 and represented SA at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in 2006 (just missing out on a medal).

She is currently the highest ranked weightlifter in South Africa and hopes to be in the SA Weightlifting Team to compete in the African Weightlifting Championships to be held in the Strand Town Hall from May 14 to 17.

A knee injury in February this year saw Portia partially side-lined from training and missing a training camp with the rest of the SA Weightlifting squad and coach, Aveenash Pandoo, in Egypt.

"The injury to my knee prevented me from the usual practice routines, but I worked on my upper body strength and continued training, and didn't lay off completely because of the forthcoming African Championships. "My knee is starting to feel a lot stronger and I'm sure I'll be ready to compete in May," she says.

Sheer chance
Portia said that it was by sheer chance that she became involved in the sport of weightlifting.

She said from as far back as she could remember she wanted to take part in a sport and really do well in it.

"One day when I was about 11, a friend of mine, Candice Cyster, asked me to go with her to the weightlifting club (Hottentots Holland Weightlifting Club in the Strand) for training and I agreed. I thought we were going to a gym like Virgin Active and had no idea at all about weightlifting.

When we arrived the coach, Aveenash Pandoo, showed me the ropes and introduced me to the sport.

"I fell in love with weightlifting there and then and decided that this was what I wanted to do and excel in. It wasn't always easy - but looking back now it was all worth it."

Portia still remembers how as an 11-year-old she had to walk from Broadlands Park to the HHWC (a distance of 12 km a day) six times a week - sometimes in pouring rain, soaring temperatures, and the ever-present south easter to get to training.

"I did this because my coach, Aveenash Pandoo, told me that if I stick it out I would do well in this sport, travel the world and meet interesting people from all over.

"So I stuck it out and continued training, day in and day out because I wanted to be a champion and a positive role model for my brothers and sisters.

"At that stage things weren?t easy and eight of us, my three sisters, three brothers, an adopted cousin and my mother and I lived in a small two roomed Wendyhouse.

"When I first started weightlifting training things were tough and I cried a lot trying to reach my goals - but slowly things got easier as I practised more and more.

"Broadlands Park was a tough area to grow up in as there are alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancies and not many role models in the community that children can look up to. My mother worked really hard and did the best she could for us, working in a factory and later in a laundry, to bring home some money. When I was allowed, I started working at Wimpy in Strand to help my mother pay school fees and cover other expenses."

"Today I can say with pride that things are much better for myself and my family due to me competing in weightlifting.

"I have helped my mother build a three-bedroomed house with a garage with the money I have earned through my sport."

Portia explains that whenever she competed for South Africa overseas, they used to receive pocket-money and she used to keep almost all of it and buy only essentials and bring the rest home for her mother.

She said then Macsteel Maestros (affiliated to the Sports Science Institute of SA - SSISA) approached her and offered to help her financially. After school they sent her to college in Cape Town where she completed a massage and reflexology course and after this employed her at the SSISA.

Since becoming involved in weightlifting she has travelled all over the world and competed in countries such as Thailand (her favourite), Australia, India, Greece, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria and met interesting people of all cultures - just as her coach said she would.

Engaged
Portia is presently engaged to Seychelles weightlifter, Charles Simeon, whom she met while competing for SA during a competition in Kenya in 2002. They plan to get married in December and move to the Seychelles.

She says her main goal is now to qualify for the SA Olympic team who will compete in Beijing in August and is as usual working hard training nine times a week to achieve her goal.

"I feel genuinely blessed with everything I have been able to do and would like to pass on a bit of advice someone passed on to me when I was devastated after failing to win a medal for SA at the Commonwealth Games and that is - falling is not failing, but staying down is. "This motto has often helped pick me up when I'm down. "All these achievements mean a lot to me and I have also told my mother that she no longer needs to work and that I will look after her. I know that none of this would?ve been possible without the help of God, my family (especially my mother), my coach Aveenash Pandoo, Hester and Hubert Montgomery, Macsteel Maestros and SASCOC.

She firmly believes that she would not have made it if she didn't believe in herself and believe that she could do it. She says that in order for her to continue living her dream and stay committed and focused she continues to set goals for herself and then goes for them full force.

She stressed that by doing things this way shows just where sport can take one - depending how much you want it and how hard you are prepared to work to get it.

Besides weightlifting Portia enjoys spending time with her family and interacting with people of different cultures.

She also trains young girls at the HHWC including two of her sisters, Tracy-Lee (10) and Clarissa (20). Boys and girls interested in taking up the sport may phone Portia on 076 083 9917 or Hubert Montgomery on 082 695 0455.

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