ANDY Griffiths will feature in the Commonwealth Games this summer in a unique position.

The 29-year-old weightlifter will head to Birmingham as both a performer and coach.

While the former St Aelred's Catholic Technology College student will be competing in the 109kg men’s division for Team England, Amy Salt – whom he has been coaching since last year at the club he co-owns – will be representing Team Wales in the women’s 76kg competition.

Griffiths, who hails from Newton-le-Willows, is delighted that he has been able to provide the final push for 30-year-old Salt to achieve her long-held ambitions of contesting a Commonwealth Games, while realising his own dream in the process.

Salt, who hails from Wrexham, joined his Performance Pride Gym in Warrington last year while working in the town.

“She put her faith in me that she could qualify for the Games and we pulled it off. I’m really proud of both of us,” said Griffiths, who has lived in Warrington with his partner and gym co-owner Heather Flannery since returning from university studies.

His selection for Team England was finally confirmed last Wednesday.

But he knew his position was secured for the July 28 to August 8 event after winning the England Commonwealth Games trials in his weight category at Brunel University on April 24.

He had targeted the 2022 Games after missing out in 2018, when he was still developing and not quite at the level required for selection.

On the confirmation of his selection, he said: “It was a bit surreal, a bit of disbelief, that nothing had got in the way of something I’d dreamed about.

“It’s amazing really that I’m going to be competing in a major Games in a sport that I really only got into around the age of 22.

“Qualifying for the Commonwealth Games, because it’s such a major event, is my biggest achievement to date in the sport.”

He will go to Birmingham ranked as Britain’s number one and the Commonwealth’s number four at 109kg.

And he will do so buoyed by achieving his best in-competition total of 341kg at the trials thanks to a 156kg snatch and a 185kg clean and jerk.

This Saturday he will be in action for Great Britain in the European Championships in Albania, but after that he will step away from the coaching at Pride Performance to concentrate on his own training and recovery to give himself the best chance of competing for a medal when the big day arrives.