Weightlifting

Stowers, who is 17 years old, set a new Commonwealth record in the women’s +90kg, lifting 108kg in the snatch, 131kg in the clean and jerk, and 239kg overall.

An emotional Stowers wiped away tears of joy as she climbed atop the podium to receive her three gold medals.

Luisa Peter of the Cook Islands claimed silver in the snatch and overall, while Nauru’s Charisma Amoe picked up silver in the clean and jerk.

In the men’s 94kg, Kari secured all three gold medals on offer, lifting 155kg in the snatch and 195kg in the clean and jerk.

Samantha Hansen from New Zealand secured the gold medal with a score of 163 points, while Maria Liku from Fiji finished second with 158 points securing the silver and Kiribati’s Tiiau Bakaekiri claimed the bronze.

In the 75kg division, the gold medal was won by a woman with a name familiar to many in the weightlifting fraternity. Apolonia Vaivai won gold with a record 215 points, as Hayley Whiting from New Zealand took the silver with a score of 176 points with the bronze going to Australian lifter Philippa Torea Frances Woonton.

A trio of female Chinese weightlifters are set to be stripped of their Beijing 2008 gold medals after testing positive for GHRP-2.

They include Cao Lei, who won the 75 kilograms category, Liu Chunhong, the 69kg champion, and Chen Xiexia, the 48kg gold medallist.

Liu also failed for stimulant sibutramine.

In June, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) vowed to hand a one-year suspension to all countries who produced three or more anti-doping rule violations in the combined re-analysis of samples from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics.

A total of 15 athletes have been implicated as part of the second wave of retests from the Olympics in the Chinese capital, with eight finishing as medallists.

Cao Lei, who won the 75 kilograms category, 69kg champion Liu Chunhong and 48kg gold medallist Chen Xiexia all tested positive for GHRP-2.

Liu also failed for stimulant sibutramine.

Belarus’ Andrei Rybakov, who won silver in Beijing and is the current world record holder in the 85kg category, is also on the list after he tested positive for anabolic steroids Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone and Stanozolol.

The 26 year-old fell short by 15kg to finish in the top 3 as he clinched the sixth spot in the world in Men’s 62kg division with a total of 290kg from 126kg snatch and 164kg clean and jerk.

Colombian Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera finished on top claiming gold with a total of 318kg (142kg snatch and 176kg clean and jerk), Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia takes the silver with a total of 312kg (687.8 lbs) and Farkhad Kharki of Kazakstan earns the bronze with a total of 305kg (672.4 lbs).

Lifting in the men’s 62kg division, the lad from Hanuabada will take the stage to lift at 5pm (6am PNG time, Wednesday).

Baru is in Group A.

Baru, who is ranked 10^th in the world in the men’s 62kg division, will be the third athlete from Team PNG to compete at Rio.

This is Baru’s first appearance at an Olympics event.

The first two athletes to compete were judo’s Raymond Ovinou and Thadius Katua from boxing.

The other 5 athletes from Team PNG will compete later during the week.

Police bullet would made me useless – survivor

http://www.looppng.com/content/police-bullet-would-made-me-useless-%E2%80%93-survivor

Nou Koroho was on his way home to Hanuabada after visiting the Nasfund office to sort out his savings on January 23 when he was shot by police.

Nasfund office closure riles members

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.

Cameroon Valdi Ahmed Njoya scooped the gold, Pakistan’s  Abdur Rehman taking silver and Opeloge settled for bronze.

Opeloge’s best in the Snatch was 96kg while his Clean & Jerk total points were  122kg. He received 218  as his final points.

Don nephew is a the youngest of the Opeloge family with two older brothers and sisters Ele and Mary Opeloge who have all represented and won medals for Samoa in the sport. Don said that he only started lifting weights this year and because his family is so involved in the weightlifting, he gave it a try.