Commonwealth Games: Doncaster’s Fraer Morrow lands surprise weightlifting bronze

She was billed with just an outside shot and Bessacarr’s Morrow had to be told by an official that her total of 198kg was enough to place third after India’s Bindyarani Devi knocked her out of silver with the final lift of the women’s 55kg competition.

Former gymnast Morrow’s final clean and jerk attempt of 115kg would have seen her leapfrog Nigerian champion Adijat Adenike Olarinoye and despite the failure she celebrated with a backflip on stage, seemingly unaware she was still in line to medal for Team England.

Morrow, 24, said: “It feels amazing, it has not quite sunk in yet. I didn’t even know I’d won the medal. The coaches came up to me and were like, ‘Ah better luck next time, it’s all right’.

“Then one of the ladies came up to me and was like, ‘How does it feel to be a bronze medallist?’ And I was like, ‘What?’

“I nearly cried because I’d missed out on a medal but then she came over and told me I had a medal, so that’s nice.

“I didn’t know what was happening and all I could see was all the coaches around the desk. There was so much arguing, and I didn’t have a clue what was going on, so I just went out to do the lift and hoped for the best.”

Morrow came fifth at her first Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 and revealed she meant business this time around after moving up a weight class and is now zoning in on bagging a spot-on Team GB for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

She said: “It feels good to improve on what I did four years ago.

“The goal for this one was a lot different to the last one. The last one was just gone and enjoy it mainly and this one was to get a medal, but I still enjoyed it. Mission accomplished.

“Hopefully, it puts me on the path to Paris 2024, that’s the next goal so I will be trying to do the qualification competitions for that one.”

Morrow got into weightlifting after taking up CrossFit to shake the weight she gained having hung up her leotard and soon realised she preferred shifting iron to doing cardio.

While the diminutive star may not immediately have got to grips with what she achieved, a significant number of loyal fans that stayed late at Birmingham’s NEC certainly did and gave her vocal support throughout.

Morrow said: “It was good. I spotted my mum in the crowd and as soon as I saw her, I was like, ‘Nope, I can’t look at you because you are crying!”

“I’m not sure what the celebrations will look like, I’m just going to enjoy the rest of the night and see what happens from there.”

National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtag: #TNLAthletes.