Dika Toua

The women's weightlifting competition gets underway this morning at Epauto, Port Vial.

Thelma Mea Toua will lift in the 48kg division while sister and PNG stalwart, Dika Toua will compete in the 53kg division.

Fiji, Nauru, Solomon Islands and Australia will be tough competitors but the Toua sisters are confident, they can bring home gold.

They all reached results which place them currently first in the ranking list.

Sisters Thelma and Dika Toua now rank first in the Commonwealth in the 48kg category and 53kg category respectively.

Morea Baru is also ranked first in the Commonwealth in the 62kg category.

Another weightlifter Toua Udia is currently placed fourth in the Commonwealth rankings in the 77kg category.

Oceania coach Paul Coffa indicated that even though three out of the four lifters won their categories, they have so much more to spare and are yet to put up their best performance.

To compete at next year’s Commonwealth Games in weightlifting, an athlete must now qualify as no longer can countries send a team to compete.

The six PNG lifters are currently training at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute, namely Thelma Toua, Dika Toua, Morea Baru, Toua Udia, Steven Kari and Lorraine Harry.

Oceania coach Paul Coffa confirmed that only fifteen lifters in the Oceania region, one per country, per category will be eligible to compete in the Gold Coast Games.

In the Oceania region there are only two events this year, where an athlete can qualify.

OWI head coach Paul Coffa said that Toua is training in full force and is in brilliant condition. 

She is focusing on a back to back gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, she won the gold medal, with a Games record of 193 kg.

Coffa told Loop PNG that he has not seen Toua as focused as she is right now. 

“This is the best I have seen her, even better than before the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“She will win back to back gold for PNG,” Coffa said.

This was after a year of committed studies with the institution under a scholarship from the PNG Olympic Committee’s (PNGOC) Athletes Excellence Program.

Weightlifters Dika Toua, Lorraine Harry, Toua Udia and footballer, Abel Redenut, took time out from their sports to take up studies under the program, which is supported by the IBS.

The PNGOC established the program to cater for life after sport for the country’s elite sports men and women.

She sacrificed her personal time for one cause, a cause greater than herself, for the joy of winning and for the love of her country.

Looking back, Papua New Guinea’s golden girl, Dika Toua has no regrets but she has come to a realization that one day all this will be over, the joy, the glory, the training and the competition, and a new challenge will arise.

This was announced by Papua New Guinea’s Chef de Mission Emma Waiwai when speaking to ABC Radio Australia recently.

Waiwai said, this may be possible because of two reasons, he may be injured or facing certain qualifying needs. It could be one of those two reasons.

On the other end, Papua New Guineas weightlifting queen and Commonwealth gold medalist Dika Toua's place in the team isn't guaranteed also as she has a long way to work her way back to her standard.

PNG Weightlifting Federation president Sir John Dawanicura says they’ll be sending Toua Udia and sisters Thelma and Dika Toua back to join the two male athletes Morea Baru and Fred Oala.  

The five athletes will train there leading up to the Oceania Championships and Olympic Qualifiers from May 23-28 in Fiji.

Baru is also preparing to attend the Australian Open International at Brisbane in March to qualify on merit for the 2016 Rio Olympics in August.

PNG Commonwealth gold medalist Dika Toua ran the program, which closed on the 31st October, at schools in Port Moresby.

Oceania Weightlifting Federation general secretary Paul Coffa was delighted about the interest of students in the region.

Coffa said figures were much higher than 5039 but three Island countries who had  already conducted the program had not sent in their entries on time.

The program was implemented by OWF four years ago to identify talented students throughout the schools of the Oceania region, and in particular the Pacific Island nations.

Elder sister and multi-event gold medallist Dika Toua won her latest gold in the women’s 53kg category at the PNG Power Dome on Sunday evening.

Now she is pleased to see her younger sisters Thelma and Konio following her lead, after Thelma collected three golds in the women’s 48kg earlier the same day.

“It’s overwhelming to have my small sisters having the same interest as I do in the same sport,” said Dika.