Lifters face weighty Fiji challenge

Rarotonga junior weightlifters Sirla Pera and solo female lifter Luisa Peters are currently competing at the Oceania Junior and Senior Weightlifting Championships in Suva, Fiji along with 165 lifters from across the region.

Peters will lift in the women’s 75kg plus category while Pera will lift in the 94kg category.

The lifting duo are in Fiji along with coach Sam Pera Snr, team manager Unakea Kauvai and Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee secretary general Rosie Blake.

Blake will be promoting the Cook Islands as an ideal venue for future weightlifting events in the region.

Meanwhile, Fiji is playing host to the biggest Oceania weightlifting championship which has also coincided with the celebration of the 30th anniversary of weightlifting in Oceania.

The five-day event, which started at the Yat Sen Secondary School hall on Monday, is the biggest Oceania championship ever held in its 30-year history.

The event seconds as a qualifier for the inaugural Youth Olympics to be hosted by Singapore in August which Peters is hoping to attend.

The countries who place in the top four in the Youth Championships for boys will qualify one lifter each to compete at the Olympic Youth Games.

In the girls’ section, the countries which place in the top three will qualify one lifter each.

All of the top lifters from the region will use this event as a test event in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October.