Hazel Greene's transition from Olympic archer to international weightlifter was confirmed after she put in another remarkable performance in America. Competing in the World Weightlifting Championships in Portland, Oregon, she won the dead-lift class with a career-best clearance of 312 lbs. It represented an improvement of 20 lbs on her previous best figures, which she recorded in July, and Greene's achievement in lifting almost three times her body-weight was acclaimed as one of the highlights of the championships.

Greene was Ireland's top international archer for several years. Beginning with the Moscow Games in 1980, she was a member of the Irish Olympic squad for three consecutive Games.

In that time, she competed extensively abroad and still holds all five National records for women. Originally from Naas, she moved to Portugal after her marriage, but now lives in New York.

"Circuit training was always a big part of my training for archery and when I decided to switch sports, it was something of a natural progression to weightlifting," she said.

"Winning in Portland was one of the best things of my career and now I'm looking forward to going back on holiday to Ireland next summer and hopefully, getting a weightlifting record to go with the ones I hold in archery".