{"id":371343,"date":"2022-06-28T06:04:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T20:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=371343"},"modified":"2022-06-28T06:04:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T20:04:56","slug":"png-weightlifters-are-athletes-of-the-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/png-weightlifters-are-athletes-of-the-games\/","title":{"rendered":"PNG weightlifters are athletes of the Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Papua New Guinea\u2019s chef de mission Kila Dick, third from left, is flanked by Morea Baru and Dika Toua and other athletes and officials during the closing ceremony of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 last Saturday night at the Oleai track & field. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Papua New Guinea weightlifters Dika Toua and Morea Baru were hailed best athletes of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 during the closing ceremonies last Saturday at the Oleai track & field.<\/p>\n

Toua topped the women\u2019s 49-kg class with three gold medals in the snatch, clean & jerk, and overall and in the process took home her 13th overall Oceania Weightlifting Championships gold medal.<\/p>\n

Just like when she received the news of the International Weightlifting Association Hall of Fame enshrinement, the 38-year-old teared up after learning that she won the best athlete award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised again. I keep getting surprised. It\u2019s been a blessing and I\u2019m very grateful to everyone who contributed toward my achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those she thanked was her coach Paul Coffa, his wife Lilly, and the Coffa family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been with them since 2022 and this means so much to me. The credit goes to him and to my family for the support they\u2019ve always given me. [Before when] I was young and single then I had my children they\u2019re still behind me and they\u2019ve always supported me,\u201d said the mother of two.<\/p>\n

Toua said being a world-class weightlifter has had its share of challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of sacrifices that I\u2019ve put in by leaving my two kids behind but I have my in-laws, my parents, my siblings to take care of them while I do my training. It\u2019s a contribution, like I said, of a lot of people and that includes my government, my Olympic committee, and my federation\u2014PNG Weightlifting Federation\u2014my sponsors and all the other corporate sponsors and everybody in Papua New Guinea that contributed toward my success. And I\u2019m really grateful to the Lord above for everything he\u2019s done to my life because I believe without Him I wouldn\u2019t be this successful,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Baru, for his part, got the nod for best male athlete of the 2022 Games after winning three gold medals and the Oceania Weightlifting Championships gold medal in the 61-kg class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like Toua, the 32-year-old Olympian was also caught by surprise with the best athlete of the Games honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I was really surprised because I thought they\u2019re gonna announce another name. But when I heard my name I was like what! I was really shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baru is dedicating the best athlete award to all the PNG athletes and the officials who took part in this Games.<\/p>\n

PNG chef de mission Kila Dick commended Toua and Baru for being named best athletes of the Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big achievement for Dika and Morea to win the best athlete honors. It means all the hard work and commitment they put in the sport paid off. It\u2019s a great honor for them to win those awards and I\u2019m grateful and honored to be part of their team.\u201d<\/p>\n

PNG tops medal tally<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, PNG earned the most gold medals of the Games after finishing with 33 gold, 28 silver, and 19 bronze medals.<\/p>\n

The Melanesian country got 23 gold medals from athletics, six from weightlifting (three each from Toua and Baru), and four from tennis, where they swept all women\u2019s events (singles, doubles, and team) plus the mixed doubles on the strength of the Apisah family (Abigail, Violet, and Patricia) and Davis Cup player Matthew Stubbings.<\/p>\n

Coming in second in the medal tally is Tahiti with 22 gold, 15 silver, and 21 bronze medals, while host the Northern Marianas had its best ever performance in the Games\u2014Pacific Games or Mini Games\u2014with 16 gold, 13 silver, and nine bronze medals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dick said it\u2019s a big achievement for their delegation to win the most medals in the Games\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur athletics team goes overseas and they train overseas. They go to the U.S. and there\u2019s scholarship programs there for all of our athletics athletes and that\u2019s the reason why they\u2019re always on top of their performances.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dick also praised Toua, Baru, and the entire athletics team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur weightlifters go down to Australia for their training and that gives them the strength, the attitude, the commitment, and the dedication that they have to come to that level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dick also took the opportunity to thank the Pacific Mini Games Organizing Committee for a well hosted 11th staging of the quadrennial event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re satisfied with all the arrangements\u2014the accommodations, transport, the venues, the food. It\u2019s been outstanding and I\u2019m satisfied with all the arrangements made by the host organizing committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Papua New Guinea weightlifters Dika Toua and Morea Baru were hailed best athletes of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":371339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5242],"class_list":["post-371343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-png"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}