{"id":402188,"date":"2023-11-22T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=402188"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Leowell-bags-bronze-in-67-kg-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Leowell-bags-bronze-in-67-kg-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Leowell bags bronze in 67-kg class"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONIARA, Solomon Islands\u2014<\/strong>Weightlifter Leowell Cristobal flew all the way to the South Pacific from Florida and didn\u2019t come out empty-handed as he bagged a bronze medal in the clean & jerk portion of the 67-kg class yesterday morning at the Maranatha Hall during the 2023 Pacific Games.<\/p>\n

Cristobal was in a tough division with big guns Samoa and Nauru who laid waste to the competition by lifting the heaviest, but Cristobal made do with bronze as his best lift was 137 kg.<\/p>\n

The gold medal went to Samoa\u2019s Nevo Ioane with a 166-kg record-breaking clean & jerk lift and silver was Nauru\u2019s Ditto Ika with a 145-kg lift.<\/p>\n

Ioane swept the competition as he won gold in the concurrent Oceania Weightlifting Championships; gold overall with 260 kg and won the snatch portion with a 120-kg lift.<\/p>\n

Samoa rocked the house as Ioane broke the 67-kg Oceania clean & jerk record by 1 kg that he set in 2020. They filled the hall with their chants and cheers as the crowd looked on and congratulated them.<\/p>\n

After the competition and during the awarding ceremony, the U.S. Air Force airman was all smiles as he got on the podium to hand Team NMI its fifth medal of the games. Cristobal said he was \u201cgrateful and honored to represent the NMI and bring a bronze!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the competition, I was just focused on one lift at a time, do my best, and really have fun out there and experience the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m happy to be part of this level of competition and I\u2019ve gained valuable experience from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd was great and I\u2019m thankful to have a large NMI group cheering me on!\u201d He added, \u201cI wanna say thanks to all my friends and family for supporting me. I want to wish a happy second birthday to my niece, Micah Rivas!\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how the experience in the Solomons has been, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s my first time here and it feels very much like home with the amazing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that two weeks from now, he will compete in the IWF Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar and is looking forward to it. Cristobal flew in last Sunday and is leaving this Thursday.<\/p>\n

Team manager Greg Borja said he\u2019s proud of Cristobal\u2019s accomplishments. \u201cAlthough he wasn’t able to hit his third lift in the snatch, his clean & jerk performance brought the NMI another bronze to add to the medal count. While serving our country in the Air Force, he will continue to train, as he and the rest of our team prepare for the Oceania Championships in New Zealand this coming February 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of 12pm yesterday, this brought CNMI\u2019s medal tally to six\u2014one gold, two silver, and three bronze medals.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leowell Cristobal completes a lift during the 67-kg weight class competition of the 2023 Pacific Games yesterday at the Maranatha Hall.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
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<\/p>\n

Leowell Cristobal, right, won bronze in the clean & jerk division of the 67-kg weigh class during the weightlifting competition yesterday. Center is gold medalist Nevo Ioane of Samoa, and left is silver medalist Ditto Ika of Nauru.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
\n
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONIARA, Solomon Islands\u2014Weightlifter Leowell Cristobal flew all the way to the South Pacific from Florida…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402188","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}