By Charlie Talbot-Smith

ZOE Smith has already set her sights on Rio 2016 but the Greenwich weightlifter admits it could be a full decade before she really starts to hit her peak.

The 18-year-old finished a creditable 12th in her first ever Games at London 2012, breaking the British clean and jerk record in the women’s 58kg event in the process.

Smith shot to fame when she grabbed Commonwealth bronze as an unknown 16-year-old in Delhi two years ago.

Since then she has had her ups and downs, a temporary cut in funding for being overweight at the back end of 2010 a particular low light, but with her first Olympic experience under her belt Smith insists she cannot wait to get back to competitive action.

“This year has just been spectacular, it’s all gone so fast though,” said Smith, who was attending the Aviva School Sport Matters Awards at Lord’s cricket ground.

“The Olympics in London were this massive thing that we were all waiting for and all of a sudden it’s been and gone, it’s hard for me to put into words what the experience was like.

“I was gutted when it ended.

“Rio 2016 is obviously the next big target but between then there are world and European championships next year that I want to do well in.

“There are also the Commonwealths in Glasgow in 2014, I would love to defend my bronze medal there and with friends and family to support me that would just be fantastic.

“What I really want is an Olympic medal and I'm still quite young, especially for the sport of weightlifting.”

The 58kg was dominated in the past by China’s Chen Yanqing who won gold in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 and still holds the world record for the snatch discipline and the total weight lifted in both snatch and clean and jerk.

Yanqing was 27 when she set those world records but had retired by the time London 2012 came around, leaving the door open to her compatriot Li Xueying to take gold.

And Smith is hoping that her time will come, although she admits it is unlikely to be challenging world records just yet.

“For my first Olympics, to come 12th was a great result,” she added. “Maybe some people expected more of but it was fantastic for me and I was so proud to be out there competing.

“It was a fantastic experience, to be up against the best in the world and to learn from being around them, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to improve and think ‘OK so I have not made it quite yet.’ “But now I'm so hungry to be at that level one day, “At the moment it really is about building on what I have already go at this young age.

“I have not been lifting for half as long as most of my competition and most people tend to get stronger towards their late 20s, so I'm 10 years away from my prime probably.

“I should have at least two more Games in me.”

The Aviva and Daily Telegraph School Sport Matters Awards recognise outstanding achievements in school sport across the country and are part of Aviva’s wider commitment to support the next generation of British sporting talent.

For more information, visit go aviva.co.uk/rugby-sponsorship

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