Papua New Guinea will be hoping to qualify six weightlifters for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.
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.
One was the Australian International Open held in Melbourne on March 17-19 and the second one is the Commonwealth and Oceania Championships on the Gold Coast from September 4-9.
Four of the six lifters, Thelma and Dika Toua, Morea Baru and Toua Udia, did well competing at the Australian International Open in Melbourne.
The six lifters are now looking forward and training hard in preparation for the upcoming Commonwealth and Oceania Championships.