Toua wins PNG silver
The National, Monday July 28th, 2014
DIKA Toua has won Papua New Guinea’s first medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, in the women’s 53-kilogramme weightlifting division.
The Oceania and PNG champion won the silver medal in a repeat of her outstanding performance at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.
The woman from Hanuabada, who is based in Noumea, registered 82-kilogramme in the snatch and 111kg in the clean and jerk, for a total of 193kg.
Sixteen year-old Chika Amalaha from Nigeria won gold with a total of 196kg and Santoshi Masta of India got the silver.
Toua was considered favourite for gold as the three medallists from the Delhi Games in 2010 were all absent from Glasgow.
But Amalaha, a highschool student from Lagos, Nigeria, surprised many with a resolute performance that belied her age and experience.
Toua, 30, started weightlifting in 1996, following a family tradition after her aunt also represented Papua New Guinea.
She has competed at four consecutive Olympic Games since her debut as a 16 year-old at Sydney in 2000 when she became the first female weightlifter to represent PNG.
Toua’s best result in Olympic competition is a sixth-place finish at the 2004 Games in Athens.
In her athlete biography, the mother-of-two said her most memorable sporting achievement was winning a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Male lifter Morea Baru made an outstanding performance in the men’s 62kg division when he missed winning the bronze medal by 1kg.
He lifted a total of 270kg while Samoan Ioane Vaipava lifted 271kg to get the bronze.
The gold was won by Cypriot Dimitris Minasidis and Sri Lankan Sudesh Peiris took the silver.
PNG weighlifting official Lakani Oala said he was happy with the results, in that the three weightlifters including his son, Fred Oala, who competed in the men’s 56kg division earlier in the week, were placed in the top 10 in their categories.
In other Pacific weightlifting news, Samoan weightlifter, Nevo Ioane Vaipava won bronze in the 62kg class with Tuvalu’s Lapua Lapua expected to be 26 year-old’s main challenger. The gold medal was won by Cyprus’ Dimitris Minasidis.