An eight-strong team of athletes will travel to the event to take on some of the best weightlifters from hosts Norway as well as Sweden, and England will have high hopes of retaining the title they won last year.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Zoe Smith and Devon's Helen Jewell lift in the senior women's category, with Smith aiming to repeat her victory in that category last year, while Jewell will be looking to improve on fourth spot in 2010.

Londoner Peter Barnett (pictured) and Derby's Chris Freebury lift in the senior men's category where Freebury finished fourth last year, but this time he lifts in the higher 67kg category.

Last year's best junior lifter, Shaun Clegg from Manchester, will defend his title while Josh Farghally - also from Manchester - will be competing for the first time since recovering from injury.

And in the youth section, Lancashire's Alex Collier makes his first appearance for England, and is joined by Devon's Sonny Webster who will be looking to build on the experience of last year's event where he was comfortably best in the category.

The competition scores are calculated using the Sinclair method, where the total lifted is multiplied by a correction factor based on the athlete's weight.

"The Tri-Nations is a great opportunity for the younger athletes in the team to gain International experience and for Helen Jewell and Zoe Smith is ideal preparation for the European Championships in April," said British Weight Lifting performance manager Fiona Lothian.

"It is a strong English team who should be confident of retaining the overall title - much will depend on how the younger members of the team perform as their points will be crucial.

"The senior team is very young, and even if they record personal bests we would expect to have to make up some ground if we are to take the overall title."