Kiribati strikes gold in Glasgow

Kiribati weightlifter David Katoatau has won the country’s first ever Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow.

Competing in the men’s 105kg division, the 30-year-old lifted a combined total of 348kg to beat New Zealand’s Stanislav Chalaev by seven kilograms.

Katoatau, who finished fourth in the 94kg weight class at the Delhi Games in 2010, was in third place after the snatch and waited until all other competitors had completed the clean and jerk before taking his first attempt.

But that lift of 194kg was all that was needed to secure gold, before he improved his winning margin with a 200kg effort on his second attempt.

Samoa’s Tovia Opeloge was fourth with a total of 331kg, while Faavae Faaululi finished eighth in the event he won in Delhi four years ago.

Earlier in the morning, Samoa’s Ele Opeloge won silver in the women’s 75kg category.

The 29-year-old was unable to defend her title won four years ago in Delhi, lifting a total of 271kg, nine kgs behind gold medal winner Maryam Usman from Nigeria, and 14kg behind her own Games Record.

Fellow Samoan Iuniarra Sipaia finished fifth with a total lift of 233kg, the Cook Islands’ Luisa Peters was sixth with 225kg while Tonga’s Suliana Fate and Niue’s Vitolia Tauasi finished at the bottom of the field.

On Tuesday, Steven Kari won gold for Papua New Guinea in the men’s 94kg weightlifting event following a controversial final at the weightlifting stadium.

The 21-year-old lifted a total of 349kg (149 + 200) to take the gold by the narrowest of margins ahead of Australia’s Simplice Ribouem.

Ribouem, 10 years Kari’s senior, also lifted 349kg (153 + 196), but Kari was awarded the win courtesy of his lower bodyweight after weighing in 110g lighter.

Controversy struck in Kari’s final lift when he appeared to lift 200kg, only for the judges to declare it a no-lift after ruling the Papua New Guinean’s elbow had touched his knee.

However, after a few minutes of deliberation, the jury of appeal reversed the decision and judged it a fair lift, much to the anger of the Australian camp. Television replays appeared to show the original decision had been correct.

Ribouem had one lift remaining to try and snatch victory away from Kari as he added a kilogram to the bar.

But the Australian never looked likely to pull it off and collapsed on his back to hand gold to Papua New Guinea – only their third since the Pacific nation made its Commonwealth debut in 1962.