DENHOLME'S Rebekah Tiler says that she feels fantastic after clinching her first European senior medal.

The 18-year-old won a silver medal in the snatch in the women's 69kg category at the European Weightlifting Championships in Split.

The teenage Olympian, who was successful in all three of her lifts with 93kg, 96kg and 100kg, finished fourth overall, just missing out on both silver and bronze.

Tiler opened with 120kg in the clean and jerk before a slip on the platform caused her to miss her second lift of 124kg.

However, she came back out confidently and cleared the weight in her third and final lift to finish with an impressive total of 224kg, just 1kg behind the second and third-placed lifters.

Ahead of her were Russia's Anastasiia Romanova on 243kg and Mariya Khlyan (Ukraine) and Anastasiya Mikhalenka (Belarus), who were both on 225kg.

They are 25, 24 and 21 respectively, with Tiler the next-to-youngest of the 16 competitors, with only Croatia's Ivana Rumenovic, who came last, being younger (by seven months) than the former Bingley Grammar School pupil.

She put on her Facebook page: "I have just (won) my first ever European Senior medal thanks to my coach ed halstead and Giles greenwood in Loughborough and my butcher Ian and my family I feel fantastic."

The competition is one of the key qualifying events for next year's Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Tiler said: "I'm really happy with my performance – it's my first major competition since Rio and the prep had gone well, so I was confident going out on the platform.

"To get five out of six good lifts, and on the international stage, is really positive.

"There's lots of new faces and most other lifters are a lot older than me, so to come out here and lift as I did is great – I'm still buzzing!"

English champion Sarah Davies, a PE teacher at Ilkley Grammar School, achieved two personal bests in the women's 63kg category.

She finished fifth overall with a total weight of 208kg.

Meanwhile, British Weight Lifting have decided not to make a further appeal against the UK Sport decision to cut funding for their elite programme.

However, the cuts do not come into effect until June.