Cornwall's Nick Hancock says being the "best" in his sport is his motivation ahead of the World Powerlifting Championships in Ireland.

Hancock, 28, is one of the three British athletes competing in the 82.5 kg category at the event this weekend.

He told BBC Spotlight: "I started four years ago, started winning and realised that I was not too bad at it.

"I'm not happy unless I'm the best at something, so that's what I'm striving for at this particular time."

In powerlifting, the athletes compete to see who can amass the highest weight total over three different disciplines - squat, bench press and deadlift.

Each athlete is given three attempts at each discipline, with their best weight in each added to their overall total.

It's going to be nice to have a little bit of a break after this Nick Hancock

And having spent nearly every day of the last four months in the gym preparing for the Championships, Hancock is aiming to get a combined score of between 615-620 kg.

He said: "You can never get away from it when you're training for powerlifting - it's not as easy as just coming into the gym and lifting the weights.

"You've got everything - your food, your sleep, your drink, all of your nutrition and all your supplements, so basically it takes over your whole entire life."

Alex Tosh and Paul McCaffrey are the two other British athletes who will be competing in Hancock's class at the Iontas Centre in Castleblayney, County Monaghan.

The trio beat off competition from around the country at the British Championships in March to gain at place at the worlds.

And with Hancock lifting around a quarter-of-a-tonne every time he steps onto the competition floor, he admitted: "It's going to be nice to have a little bit of a break after this."

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