Who says you can't have beauty and brawn?

By PENNY STRETTON

Superfit Sarah Davies is on a mission to break down the stereotype of a typical beauty queen - and she's using brute force to do it. The stunning 21 year-old has qualified for the Commonwealth Games as a weightlifter - while also competing in beauty pageants. Sarah, a full-time PE teacher, from Leeds says she is passionate about changing the image of women by taking part in two very contrasting roles. She said: 'I hope that because I'm so far from the stereotypical beauty queen, young people will realise that the way to get the body you want isn't through starving yourself.

'I also like that one breaks the stereotype of the other, as people think female weightlifters should be really butch looking and beauty queens should be tall, blonde and rake thin. 'It shows you don't have to be manly to enjoy the sport and you don't have to be skinny to be a beauty queen. They're both great fun and anyone can do it. 'I hope that my training as a weightlifter will help people realise that beauty pageants have come a long way since the 1970s because I think outside of the pageant community, a lot of people think they are still really outdated. 'Since I started, my arms hardly look any different because you use the strength in your legs and bum. 'I also hope that my success in pageants will encourage more girls to take up weightlifting. 'It's very important in pageants now to have a healthy body and active lifestyle and not to have a stick-thin, starved figure we used to see." Sarah, a former Miss Leeds, qualified for this summer's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after totalling 190kg with a 83kg snatch and 107kg clean and jerk in the English Weightlifting Championships.

Her first foray onto the catwalk came in March 2012 when she won Miss Leeds as a student in the city. At the moment she spends 20 hours a week training for weightlifting while also preparing for the required charity events in the Miss England event. Sarah is currently working as a supply teacher at Temple Moor High School in Leeds, West York’s she added: 'It can be hectic trying to fit everything but I am lucky that the timing of the school day means I can fit everything in at the best time for me.

'Schools are usually supportive as they like to have an elite athlete as a teacher to be a role model to the pupils.' Sarah said her weightlifting helped her land the Miss Leeds title as she had something different to offer, and other girls in the competition come to her for advice on exercise. She said: 'Weightlifting has toned up my body and I'm in much better shape now I've been training. I think that's really helped with the beauty pageants I've been in, especially with the swim suit rounds. I absolutely love doing both and it's great that they work well together, even if it is an unusual mix.'