A TALENTED teenager from Worcester has been tipped as a potential future Olympic weight-lifter after winning a national title.

Taylor Dovey, aged 13, has marked herself out as one to watch by capturing the year eight section of the 2013 British Schools Weightlifting Championships at the Oldbury College of Sport.

Facing nine other competitors, the Nunnery Wood High School student managed a new personal best total of 74 kilogrammes across the snatch and clean and jerk.

She is coached once a week in Bristol by current Great Britain weightlifter Sonny Webster, who is sponsored through a company run by Taylor’s father Jeff, and was cheered on at the event by London 2012 star Zoe Smith.

Taylor has been compared to former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Michaela Breeze, who won five medals overall, and there are high hopes for her to the 2020 Olympic Games.

Jeff Dovey, a former British masters champion, said: “She’s always showed a tremendous amount of athletic promise. I knew she would always do something sporty, I just didn’t know what it would be.

“Because I sponsor one of the GB weightlifters we were lucky enough to be invited down to some of the events at London 2012. As a bit of a thank-you from Sonny, he is coaching Taylor. Because Sonny has been doing it since he was 12, he knows how to teach Taylor.

“She’s taken to it so well because of her natural strength and athletic ability.

“There’s a lot of excitement about her. The exact words of British weightlifter Bradley Bur-rowes were ‘you have got a superstar in the making’. He said that since Michaela Breeze retired there has not been a girl that lifts like a bloke and Taylor has that ability.

“She might not be ready for Rio 2016 but she’s certainly a star for the future.”

At the British Schools event, Taylor, who also plays rugby and netball, managed all three of her snatch attempts at 28kg, 31kg and 34kg, which was a 6kg improvement on her previous best.

In the clean and jerk, she lifted 38kg and 40kg, bettering her personal best by 1kg, before just missing out on 42kg because she didn’t fully lock her arms.

The teenager, whose twin brother Jordan is a promising hockey player, will be hoping to emulate the success of her father who was crowned British Masters champion in 2011.