Toua facing difficulties

By PATRICIA KEAMO
PACIFIC Games gold medallist Dika Toua says Olympic preparations have been difficult for her and fellow weightlifter Morea Baru, given they are training at Hanuabada village in the National Capital District.
She said having to train in the village was not as professional as training at a proper training facility due to family obligations and other distractions.
Toua said although they had hoped to travel overseas to train, that did not eventuate but they were giving their best to prepare for the upcoming Tokyo Games.
“It has been very difficult because Papua New Guinea is a very family-oriented country, we’re more attached to our families than other countries,” she said.
“We’ve been training every day.
“But when you’re training in a village setting and once there is a death in the village, you can’t train because then everybody will talk about you.
“On top of that, there’s the Covid-19 situation which has caused the closure of all the sporting facilities.
“It has been difficult, we would have loved to travel overseas to train professionally and properly in terms of preparations, but we have tried our best in attending training and competitions.”
Toua said they had an online competition organised by the Oceania Weightlifting Federation and the International Weightlifting Federation for nine months in which PNG finished fifth.
Looking at the Olympic Games, Toua said it was one of the most unique competitions in which only the “best of the best” in the world could compete.
“The competition is very tough especially in weightlifting and I’m sure in all the other sports as well,” she said.
“Weightlifting is a world-recognised sport and for mine and Morea’s category, Asians and Europeans are much stronger than our region.
“But we’ve given our best and managed to rank sixth.”
PNG Olympic Committee president Sir John Dawanincura said Toua had quite a number of records in her career and Tokyo would be her fifth Olympic Games since her debut in 2000.