WATCH: Blindness not a limitation for powerflifter
She said powerlifting has brought structure and discipline in her life.
Visually impaired powerlifter Laylaa-Shiyaam Jacobs has fully embraced the challenges that come with her disability and hasn’t allowed it from stopping her from achieving her goals.
She believes blindness is not a limitation and if there’s a will, anything is possible.
Strong and determined, the 22-year-old showed sheer strength and determination in an awe-inspiring performance during the World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) SA Beast Mode Power Wars at Old Bens Sports Club on June 8.
On the squat, she was successful in her three attempts of 35kg, 40kg and 45kg. It was the same story on the benchpress, where she benched 35kg, 40kg and 35kg.
Laylaa, who hails from Centurion, improved on her personal best in the deadlift, going 80kg, 85kg and ending with a mammoth 90kg, bettering her previous record of 62.5kg she achieved at last year’s Arnold Classic Africa Festival.
“I’m really proud of what I’ve done today. I’ve been told my technique has improved quite a bit. For the judges to tell me that, it’s a big compliment. I think I’ve done pretty well,” she said.
This was Laylaa’s fourth powerlifting event after debuting at the Arnold Classic last May. There, she smashed the deadlift world record in her division, which was 20kg. She started the competition with 40kg and then proceeded to break her record, lifting 50kg and concluding with a remarkable 62.5kg.
She competed at the Barbarian Games in August where she unsuccessfully attempted the squat and bench press. In her third event, the Warrior Classic in December, she showed signs of improvement which was a testament to her commitment and hard work.
“Physically it keeps me fit. It has brought lots of structure and discipline in my life because for me to get better, the responsibility is on me to go to the gym every day and to push myself,” she said.
“My coach can tell me what to do but if I’m not going to implement these elements into my life, then we are not going to get anywhere, which wastes everybody’s time.”
She began her life-changing journey last year after her criminology lecturer at Varsity College in Lynnwood announced in front of her class that she would be powerlifting with them.
Shocked and without any knowledge about powerlifting, Laylaa tagged along and has since found the sport empowering and rewarding physically and mentally.
“I enjoy it a lot, mostly the fitness aspect of it. I enjoy pushing myself because it’s such a high-intensity environment. There’s so much that can go wrong but because of the thrill of it and pushing myself, I find it rewarding,” said Laylaa.
She thanked her coach, Johan Steenkamp, for igniting her passion and encouraging those with disabilities to be adaptive.
“You should be able to adapt to anything. You should go into a lot of things as open-minded as possible. If you have people rooting for you, it makes it easier for you but I think it’s important to be adaptive.”
Her next goal is to compete at the WPC World Championships, which will be hosted by SA next year.
“It would be really nice if I qualify, even if I just did one event. I would really enjoy that because how many people get to say they competed at a world championship hosted on home soil?”
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