Lifters put PNG on top

Sports

By HENRY MORABANG
Weightlifting has set the pace for Team PNG by winning 11 gold medals and a silver to put them on top of the medal tally at the Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
PNG are followed by Fiji with three gold, five silver and three bronze while the Marshall Islands round out the top three
Noumea-based lifter Toua Udia claimed two gold medals and a silver in the men’s 77kg division.
The 25-year-old Hanuabada man, who is part of Paul Coffa’s Oceania Weightlifting Institute, won gold in clean and jerk (172kg) and for his total (299kg).
He won silver for the snatch (127kg) behind Kiribati’s Baraniko Tabaroua who lifted 128kg to win gold.
Tabaroua collected silver in clean and jerk plus the total lift behind Udia.
Other lifters who made a clean sweep in picking up three gold each in their divisions include the Toua sisters, Thelma (48kg) and Dika (53kg) plus Baru Morea (62kg).
In men’s beach volleyball, PNG pair of Mea and Kilarupa won two matches so far to put them in medal contention.
In the opening match, PNG defeated Kiribati two sets to nil (21-18, 21-8) and in the second match against Solomon Islands, they repeated the dose (21-14, 21-14) over their fellow Melanesians.
Today they meet archrivals Fiji. The Fijians also won two matches against Solomon Islands (2-0) and Kiribati (2-0) in the same manner pointing to an interesting tussle at the Korman beach volleyball court.
The women’s beach volleyball results were not available.
In table tennis, the PNG went down to Fiji 3-0 in the women’s bronze medal play off while hosts Vanuatu beat New Caledonia to win their first gold medal of the Games.
The men’s results were not available for print.