Five months after walking out of a powerlifting competition in tears and questioning whether she should continue in the sport, British South Asian mum Aneela Rose has completed a remarkable comeback, winning World Championship silver for Team GB.
The mum-of-two secured second place at the AWPC World Powerlifting Championships in Manchester on 9 September, recording a combined 247.5kg in the M4 under-56kg class.
For Aneela, who is in her 50s and going through menopause, the medal also marks a return to the world podium eight years after she won World Championship gold in her age and weight class.
But her route back to the international stage was far from straightforward.
Just five months earlier, on 5 April, Aneela competed at a qualifier in Nottingham where her season appeared to unravel before it had properly begun.
She failed all three of her squat attempts, meaning she was eliminated from the competition without progressing to the bench press or deadlift.
Aneela left the venue in tears and began questioning whether it was time to walk away from competitive powerlifting.
Instead, 13 days later, she walked back onto a competition platform.
Competing at another qualifier in Eastbourne, Aneela needed a 232kg total to reach the British Championships.
She lifted 242kg ten kilograms more than required.
“Nottingham was horrible,” Aneela said. “I left in tears and I seriously questioned whether I wanted to carry on.
“But 13 days later, I went back. For me, strength is what you do after things go wrong and sometimes it’s simply about going back and trying again.”
That decision ultimately took her all the way to the world stage.
In July, Aneela won silver at the ABPU British Championships and secured her place on Team GB.
Then, on 9 September, just over five months after the disappointment in Nottingham, she stepped onto the podium at the World Championships in Manchester with a silver medal.
It is the latest chapter in a sporting journey which began more than a decade ago.
Aneela took up strength training in 2013 before entering competitive powerlifting in 2016. Two years later, she became a world champion, winning gold in her age and weight category at the 2018 AWPC World Championships.
Now in her 50s, Aneela says she is lifting heavier and feels physically stronger than when she began training.
For her, that carries a message which goes beyond medals.
“We’re constantly told what gets worse as women get older,” she said.
“But for me, my physical strength has got better, my appetite for trying things has got bigger, and my need for other people’s approval has got smaller.
“How many sports are there where you can actually get stronger and better as you get older?”
As a British woman of South Asian heritage competing internationally in a strength sport, Aneela is also conscious that she may not fit some traditional perceptions of what a powerlifter looks like.
At five-foot-two and competing at under 56kg, she hopes her presence on the international stage can challenge some of those assumptions.
“I’m five-foot-two, have a petite frame, menopausal, a mum and a British woman with South Asian heritage,” she said.
“I’m probably not what some people picture when they hear ‘international powerlifter’.
“People make very quick assumptions about what strength looks like. I quite enjoy being the person who messes with that picture.”
Her pursuit of physical challenges has not been restricted to competition platforms.
Earlier this year, Aneela travelled to Svalbard in the High Arctic, where she deadlifted outdoors in temperatures of -23C during the polar night, around 600 miles from the North Pole.
In August, she went to the other temperature extreme, deadlifting on sand in the Dubai desert in 45C heat.
Away from powerlifting, Aneela is a businesswoman and runs Rose Media Group, the PR agency she founded in 2004.
But it is what happened between April and September that perhaps best illustrates what her latest medal represents.
A season which began with three failed squat attempts and thoughts of giving up ended with Rose wearing Team GB colours and collecting a World Championship silver medal.
Eight years after becoming a world champion, she is not attempting to recreate the athlete she once was.
Instead, she wants to discover what she is capable of now.
“I’m not trying to be the athlete I was eight years ago,” Aneela said.
“I want to find out what this version of me can do.
“I’m not done yet!”
