Cook Islands Weightlifting Federation (CIWF) used the 2024 Cook Islands Games as a platform to build towards the 2029 Pacific Mini Games to be hosted in Rarotonga.

The weightlifting competition that concluded last week gave the federation an opportunity to identify lifters in preparation for the 2029 Mini Games.

Luisa Peters, president of the Cook Islands Weightlifting Federation, explained that the federation’s goal was to develop the sport in preparation for the Mini Games.

“When we had weightlifting for the first time, we had quite a number of lifters and athletes during the weightlifting but because it was a new sport to a lot of them (island teams), they just put in a lot of entries,” Peters told Cook Islands News.

“We’ve noticed that since then we’ve had less numbers but more quality lifters. So, lifters are a bit more aware of the sport now, they’re a bit more aware of the technique, so now we have less numbers but more quality lifters.”

Last Tuesday, at the weightlifting competition, three national youth athletes competed, including the Cook Islands’ senior female national representative, and elite male lifter, Jerome Tura, who dominated all categories on Wednesday.

“From the last two Games, we’ve identified athletes to bring into the national team so this year we’re hoping to identify a bit more especially our youth with the 2029 Mini Games coming up. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to identify a bit more youth for us to develop until 2029,” Peters added.

She said that the 2024 Cook Islands Games saw many new lifters emerge, adding that there were also some returning old lifters representing their islands this year.

“This event is a good test event for them, this is where we will expect them to improve on their lifts for them to hit some of our Cook Islands and weightlifting qualification standards,” Peters said.

“It’s been good, people have been enjoying themselves and there have been some great performances especially our new lifters.”

There were approximately 50 entries collected by CIWF before the competition this year, representing all 11 islands.

Earlier this month, Cook Islands won the bid to host the 2029 Pacific Mini Games, making it the first country to host the event three times.

Meanwhile, cricket, badminton, cycling, touch, beach volleyball, football, lawn bowls and boxing events were held yesterday.

Beach volleyball continues today alongside cricket, football and lawn bowls. Netball and rugby 7s start today.