Halil Zorba is confident he will be at the London Olympics next year despite a disappointing World Weightlifting Championship.

The 23-year-old, who lives in Crystal Palace and trains at the National Sports Centre, lifted a personal best 125kg in the snatch but injured a ligament in his upper leg before the clean and jerk.

He could only lift 165kg, five kilos below his best, to give him a total of 290kg, an agonising one kilogram short of the B standard required to be in with a chance of selection for his home games next summer.

But, with the European Championships in April and the British Senior Championships in May still offering chances to lift either the B or A standard (309kg), Zorba believes he can power his way to a spot in the three-man men's team.

"I know I am capable of the B standard and I am pretty sure I am capable of the A standard," said the full-time civil engineer.

"The World Championships was just an experience for all of us to see what it is like to compete against top athletes but it was not central to qualifying.

"I am looking forward to the Europeans in Turkey where I will compete for the A standard and I am extremely confident after Paris, to perform like that with an injury is very encouraging.

"I had a really good snatch session at the worlds and smashed my personal best by five kilos and that put me on track to get the B standard if not the A standard.

"But, in the warm up area, I strained a ligament and after that my technique went out the window.

"I would have been good to compete my snatch with a good clean and jerk so I wasn't 100 per cent pleased with how the championships went."

Zorba, of Turkish-Cypriot heritage, has been training at Crystal Palace for three years having started weightlifting when just 11 years old - but admits he would put his career ahead of his weightlifting.

"George Manners, who competed in the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo, was my PE teacher at Bethnal Green Technology College," explains Zorba.

"I had a few words with him about his experiences and he influenced me to try out the sport and that was that.

"I am coached by Keith Morgan at Crystal Palace now and there a few of us there.

"I do not get any funding or anything though so I need a job and I am career driven.

"I want to get to the Olympics but not at the expense of my future."