Photo: Samoa’s Ele Opeloge, Oceania and Commonwealth queen of weightlifting, attempts to clean 155kg yesterday. 09100186
Ele Opeloge of Samoa is the undisputed weightlifting queen of the Pacific.
Her impressive weightlifting career earned her the title but in yesterday’s women’s +75kg category lift – she proved it again.
She set a new Pacific Games record with her first snatch lift of 120kg smashing the previous record lift of 113kg which she also set.
She then set another new record just minutes later with a massive lift of 125kg to not only re-set a new Pacific Games snatch record but a new Oceania and Commonwealth record.
And that was just the first half of her competition.
In the clean and jerk she cleaned 145kg first up then added an extra 5kg for a 150kg lift to set yet another new Pacific Games record in the clean and jerk category.
Ele then attempted a lift of 155kg in her final lift but she buckled under the weight.
If she had successfully cleaned the lift, she would have set a new total record for the Oceania and South Pacific region.
Her final total lift of 275kg also registered as a new games total lift.
Already Ele is the Pacific, Oceania and Commonwealth games champion.
She was definitely in a class of her own in the +75kg category taking all three gold medals for the snatch, clean and jerk and total lift.
Niue’s Narita Vilamu snatched the three silver medals with a total lift of 205kg (85kg snatch and 120kg clean and jerk).
The real battle in the category was for the bronze medal between newcomers to the sport Noeline Luaki of New Caledonia and our very own Luisa Peters.
After a failed first lift of 52kg in the snatch, Luisa went on to successfully lift 57kg and 60kg for her final snatch lift.
Noeline also failed her first lift of 52kg with a successful second lift of 60kg and third lift of 62kg.
The mind games began in the clean and jerk and the two girls’ coaches jostled adding a kg at a time to the girls lift.
Luisa then cleaned her first lift of 67kg with Noeline cleaning 70kg in her first lift.
Luisa then lifted 74kg successfully in her second lift with Noeline also having a successful second lift of 75kg.
Luisa then returned to the stage for her final lift of a whopping 82kg but unfortunately the weight was too much for her – likewise for Noeline who also attempted to lift the same weight.
It was a disappointing final lift for our local girl who was only 3kg off the bronze medal that was awarded to Noeline.
But with a few more years of development and training our very own Luisa Peters will no doubt step up to the same class as Samoa’s golden girl Ele Opeloge. - Cook Islands News
Last Modified on 03/10/2009 09:15