Coach's slap helps Breeze finish

Michaela Breeze grimaces with pain in Beijing

Devon-based Welsh Olympic weightlifter Michaela Breeze was slapped by her coach, Andrew Davies, to help her finish the competition in Beijing.

Breeze buckled in pain from a back injury, but finished seventh to the crowd's roars before collapsing to the floor sobbing.

She said: "It's an Olympic Games - pain's irrelevant. I've trained for so many years for this.

"My coach gave me a slap too. Anything to take the pain away from my back."

The 63kg lifter who won gold for Wales at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games added: "Adrenalin is the best pain-killer and the crowd could see I was struggling and really got behind me. They were fantastic.

606: DEBATE Give us your thoughts on Michaela Breeze's Olympic efforts

Breeze, 29, converted snatch attempts at 80kg and 85kg, but could be seen to hold her back.

After treatment, she returned to post 100kg in the clean and jerk and has been assured there will be no long-lasting damage from the injury.

"I've had scans and everything. It was decided that competing would cause no further damage," said Breeze.

"I struggled. I had a back injury coming into the competition.

"If the situation had been different I would probably have pulled out a couple of weeks ago, but there was nobody to replace me.

After so many years of training to get this far I didn't want to pull out Michaela Breeze

"I was in some discomfort in training and only managed to snatch up to 75kg in training and only clean-and-jerked 85kg.

"It's not that the weights felt heavy - the problem was the pain I was in.

"But after so many years of training to get this far I didn't want to pull out."

At the end Breeze began crying as she triumphantly held the barbell above her head to roars from the crowd, and later collapsed to the floor sobbing.