The 20-year-old became Port Macquarie's first-ever competitive weightlifter to progress when she headed to Glen Innes last month.

Requiring an 83-kilogram clean and jerk to qualify after she had already registered a 62-kilogram snatch, the Wauchope product held on for dear life.

"I pushed it up above my head, went to stand it up, but I was a little bit wobbly because I'd been competing all day," she said.

"I held on for dear life and thought if 'I don't hold it, I don't qualify for nationals' so I held on and the crowd was wanting me to hold on. It was awesome."

Debreceny started CrossFit-style training as a 15-year-old before she said it eventually evolved into Olympic weightlifting.

"I definitely thought I was so much further away (at qualifying for national level) than what I was," she said.

"They have a massive sheet in most gyms that tell you what numbers you need to hit to qualify and I saw it and thought 'no way, I'm so close'."

She gained her qualification as a coach for nXtLvL Functional Movement Centre in Port Macquarie earlier this year and she hopes her career can now take off.

"I had a conversation with one of the coaches there who told me my numbers were really close to qualifying for nationals," Debreceny said.

"At the time I wasn't even training and was only about five kilos off. So I put my head down for six or seven weeks and trained real hard thanks to my coach Kez who did the program for me."

After qualifying for the national titles in Perth with a combined weight lift of 145 kilograms, Debreceny has her eye on a new record.

It might have to take a momentary back seat, however, as she is currently studying physiotherapy at Charles Sturt University.

"Ideally by the end of my university degree, I want to hit a 200-kilo total," she said.

"Weightlifting was my favourite part of training when I was younger, but I just didn't have the opportunity because there was never a weightlifting gym in Port Macquarie and now there is.

"You have to sink your teeth into it, compete and we'll see what happens from here."

What the future holds is unknown although Debreceny will stay in the same weight class and age group for the next two years.

"Ideally I'll stay in the same weight class and age group because I'm only 21 this year so I've got two more years in that age group.

"Hopefully I can stay competing and getting big numbers."

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