The 17-year-old Londoner, who claimed England's first ever female weightlifting medal in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last October when she picked up bronze, performed outstandingly again in the 63kg weight category as she broke the under-23 British record by 13kg with a combined total of 201kg.

Smith lifted 91kg in the snatch and 110kg in the clean and jerk, adding 5kg and 8kg to her previous bests in each discipline, but it was not enough to see off 16-year-old Diana Akhmetova of Russia who took gold with a combined total of 219kg.

"I'm absolutely thrilled," said Smith, who was suspended briefly at the end of last year by British Weight Lifting (BWL) for training up at a training camp overweight.

"I was feeling under a lot of pressure to do well here because everyone kept telling me they felt sure I was going to win a medal.

"I texted my mum to ask her not to be disappointed if I came home with nothing, although I did admit that I'd be secretly disappointed if I didn't."

"Despite my success in Delhi, I kind of felt I'd let myself down with my performance, so to come here and compete this well on a world stage has really given me so much encouragement and reinforces my belief that I made the right decision to put my studies on hold to move to Leeds and train full-time with the national squad."

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