Lifters expected to do well at Oceania c’ships

THE PNG Weightlifting Federation is confident their team, particularly elite lifters Steven Kari, Morea Baru, Dika Toua and Thelma Toua, will do well at the Oceania Championships which start today in Monte Dore, Noumea, New Caledonia.
The country’s lifters will compete in senior and youth categories.
Team manager Mavara Tamasi, who left with the first group of lifters earlier this month, said he expected Kari, Baru and Toua, to lead the way for the team in the senior competition.
“We’re taking a smaller team than usual to the championships but we’re hoping that our elite lifters will do well for us in Noumea,” Tamasi said.
“Steven (Kari), Dika (Toua), Thelma and Morea (Baru) are our four big medal hopes but we’re also confident the other lifters will do well too.”
Tamasi said the championships would also be a qualifying event for the Youth Olympics which will be in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October.
“We’ve had lifters represent us at previous Youth Olympics. Igo Lohia (male) and Bea Ovia (female) represented PNG at the 2014 Youth Olympics in China so we’re hoping we can have one or two of our lifters to do it again.”
Youth lifters are between the ages of 13-17 years.
Tamasi said the senior lifters would also be competing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics (2020).
“Our senior lifters will use this event as a qualifier for the 2020 Olympics,” said Tamasi, an Oceani Weightlifting Institute-accredited official, “but it’s not the only qualifying event. They’ll have a few other qualifying events between now and 2020.”
Oceania lifters have at least six international events over the course of the next 18 months that they can use to qualify for the Olympics with Tamasi saying even though some had already qualified — Kari, Toua and Baru — they still had to be consistent over the course of the upcoming events to cement their spots because of the sport’s anti-doping regulations which required lifters to continuously meet the qualification standard.
The qualification events are the Oceania Championships, World Championships (2018 and 2019), Australian Championships, Pacific Games, Commonwealth Championships.
Baru and Dika Toua, who are on International Olympic Committee scholarships will train with coach Paul Coffa at his Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Noumea.
Baru, who was runner-up for the 2018 SP Sports Male Athlete of the Year award, was able to earn the scholarship based on his performances over the 2017 season (which included winning a gold medal at the Australian Championships) enabling him to be rated above Kari using the Sinclair formula.
Kari, on the other hand would still be able to train at the OWI with funding from the PNG Olympic Committee.
Dika Toua’s younger sister Thelma will also train at the OWI thanks to the PNGOC.
PNG team: Seniors — (male)Steven Kari 94kg, Morea Baru 62kg, (female) Dika Toua 53kg; Youths — (male) Bau Doura 50kg, Heni Udu 62kg, Gahuna Nouari 56kg, (female) Hitolo Grace Gari 75kg, Hane Kila 53kg, Naomi Bogana 48kg.