Two gold for Kari
Source:
The National, Wednesday July 8th, 2015
STEVEN Kari won two gold medals in last night’s 94kg division but failed to complete a clean sweep in the Pacific Games weightlifting competition.
Kari failed in his second and third attempts at snatching 150kg and had to settle for silver in an anticlimactic start to proceedings.
Kari blamed a boisterous home crowd for unsettling him when he came on to the stage at 9.31pm for the snatch.
“I thought I was not going to make it after I dropped the bar in the snatch two times because the crowd was giving me a lot of support,” Kari said.
“I got back the momentum in the clean-and-jerk and focused, kept my form to win.”
American Samoan Tanumafili Jungblut won the bronze in the snatch, lifting 136kg.
Samoan Siaosi Leuio held his snatch attempt at 150kg to pip the home town hero and see the Games second boil-over in as many days.
Women’s gold medal favourite Dika Toua had failed to dominate her 53kg division on Sunday managing one gold medal.
The 21-year-old Kari came back to win the clean and jerk and overall categories to claim the other two gold medals on offer at the PNG Power Dome.
Kari cleaned 204kg in the clean and jerk ahead of rival Leuio, who could only manage a maximum lift of 193kg. Junglut came in a distant third with a 152kg effort.
Kari then took the overall gold medal by the slimmest of margins with a total of 344kg while Leuio was a close second with 343kg and Jungblut was third with a total of 288kg.
Kari’s former coach Paul Coffa paid tribute to the Hanubada man saying despite the slip in the snatch he was “sensational”.
“You cannot find another Steven Kari in PNG.
“He was sensational,” Coffa said.
PNG Weightlifting Federation president Sir John Dawanincura described Kari’s performance as “phenomenal” preferring to focus on the come-back after the initial shock of failing in the snatch.
“People like Steven are rare in sports because he came back after being beaten. He improved as the night went on.”
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill presented Kari his medals in front of a patriotic crowd who would have left the venue pleased but a little disappointed.