A POWERLIFTER from Bournemouth has claimed gold at the World Championships in the Czech Republic - smashing a world record in the process.

The competition, which took place in the city of Trutnov, saw Bournemouth's Lee Cutler claim the Global Powerlifting Committee (GPC) world title in the men's unequipped 75 to 82kg category.

Having previously won the Junior World Championships in Cape Town in 1999 and tasting more success at his home town's BIC in 2009 as a member of the British powerlifting team, 40-year-old Lee is building a collection of prizes in the sport.

The unequipped "raw" category, which Lee won, involves lifters not having the support of equipment such as bench shirts and squat suits which aid lifts.

In his category, the Bournemouth athlete beat close competition from competitors from Hungary and Germany respectively.

Powerlifting runs in Lee's family and he said without someone very close to him he would have never competed at the world level.

"My father, Andrew, was a powerlifter and my grandad was also very good, so you could say it runs in the family," Lee said.

"My dad is my best mate and he got me into this sport. He's such an inspiration to me and it was great that my mum and him could watch the event on the online live stream."

The powerlifting events take a similar format to Olympic weightlifting events.

In powerlifting see athletes complete three different lifts - squat, bench press and deadlift - with three attempts at each of them.

In claiming gold, Lee's top lifts across the three disciplines accumulated a total mass of 720kg.

From squatting 285kg, bench pressing 160kg and deadlifting 275kg, he managed to break the GPC world record for the division by 20kg.

At the age of 40, Lee still has big ambitions in the sport.

He has is focus set on the British Championships in November, which take place in Hertfordshire this year.

Alongside his competing, Lee delivers some lifting coaching and he said anyone can give the sport a go.

"It's such a good thing for people to do," he said.

"Powerlifting is a really good confidence builder.

"When you start you get stronger quite quickly and you feel motivated to try and better yourself."