A nervous performance from Australia’s Leigh Skinner at the IPC Powerlifting World Championships in Kuala Lumpur has seen him falter in his bid to gain automatic qualification for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Skinner equalled his personal best lift of 165kg yesterday in the 82.5kg weight division, but it wasn’t enough to place in the top 10. Instead, he finished 12th out of 19 competitors, a result Australian senior Powerlifting coach Scott Upston felt could have been better.

The World Championships is only the second international tournament in which Skinner has competed and proved to be the fiercest competition he has faced so far in his career.

Upston said Skinner’s nerves appeared to wreak havoc on his performance, but the lessons learnt from the tournament were valuable for the newcomer ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

Skinner will miss out on qualification to the 2012 London Paralympic Games in the first instance, but remains a chance of making the team through the Bipartite Qualification Process that incorporates an additional two qualifying spots for the Games.

Australia’s Cameron Whittington and Dave Williams will compete today in the 100kg weight category.

By APC Media