Champion Weightlifter Steven Kari has won Gold for Papua New Guinea in the Men’s 94kg in Day six of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
The 21 year old from Hanuabada in Central Province won the second medal for PNG, lifting 149kg in the snatch and 195kg in the clean and jerk.
Kari finished ahead of Australia’s Simplice Ribouem who won Silver and Bronze winner Chandrakant Mali from India.
Kari, whose gold medal is the first of any male weightlifter from PNG, said he felt like it was a clean lift.
“I was confident. I didn’t feel any elbow problem with my knees. I was confident,” he said. “If you bring the camera down, I didn’t touch it,” Kari told FOX sports
He will now add a Commonwealth Gold to his medal collection after snatching three Gold medals at the Pacific and Mini-Pacific Games.
He is now the Commonwealth Champion in the 94kg division.
Meanwhile, there were mixed emotions for Samoa and Fiji, who both won weightlifting medals in the women’s 75kg division in Glasgow on Wednesday.
Samoa’s Mary Opeloge was unable to repeat her gold medal effort from last year’s Commonwealth Championships, finishing second behind Canada’s Marie-Eve Beauchemin-Nadeau, who lifted a new Games Record of 250kg.
Fiji’s Apolonia Vaivai finished third with a total lift of 209kg, earning Fiji’s first medal in Glasgow, and first Commonwealth Games medal since 2006.
Coach and national weightlifting manager Della Shaw says she always believed the 23 year old was a big chance of making it onto the dais.
“It’s overwhelming, she’s excited and we’re all excited over her performance. Especially when Fiji is just coming back into the Commonwealth Games. She grabbed the opportunity and because Apolonia has been training very hard and just been accepted back in the Commonwealth Games it was something we were looking forward to”
GLASGOW, (LOOP PNG/RNZI)
