WORLD champion weightlifter Mike Pyke (right) struck gold again on Saturday when the nation's top disabled athletes converged on Leigh.

Wheelchair wonder Mike, 34, a Leigh lad who now lives in Hindsford, topped the British Weightlifting Association's disabled championships held at Flex Gym.

In the 82 kilo class he registered a table-topping lift of 137.5 kilos as male and female lifters sweated it out in the West Bridgewater Street gym.

By doing so he booked himself a place with the Great Britain team which in April flies out to North America for the Oklahoma Classic -- an event which attracts the world's best disabled athletes.

Spina bifida sufferer Mike, cheered on by an army of around 100 enthusiastic supporters, is now battling against an painful ankle problem to be in peak fitness to again challenge the world.

Elated Mike and fellow athletes, who stayed at the Travel Lodge in Lowton in preparation for the championships, afterwards went on a wheelchair tour of the Leigh's hostelries to drink to their success.

This week Mike said: "It was fantastic, I was overwhelmed by the amount of support. I can't thank everyone enough for laying on a brilliant show at a super venue. About hald a dozen of us enjoyed a night out on the town afterwards."

Last weekend's event was switched to Leigh when the usual Stoke Mandeville venue proved unavailable and enthusiastic Mike, who helped organise the day's sport, is hopeful Leigh will become a regular competition spot. The day was also a moving moment for Tyldesley couple Leo and Audrey Smith who presented the Dave Smith Memorial Trophy in honour of their late son -- Mike's best pal who was also an international weightlifting star-- who died last summer.

That award went to novice lifter Gary Parker of Bristol who was named most improved competitor.