News

The Oceania Weightlifting Federation held last week at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute an OTIP camp.

Running in the framework of the IWF Development Program, we are very proud to contribute un discovering new talents.

Using the contribution provided to Continental Federations, the program putted into place by the OWF shows an outstanding success and it is proved to be an efficient way to use money provided for the development of weightlifting sport.

OTIP Report

The second year of the Oceania Talent Identification Program (OTIP) was launched in Brisbane – Australia, on the 10th July during the Oceania Weightlifting Congress.

This program which started 12 months earlier has been an outstanding success in identifying talent in the region, especially in the Pacific islands. Quite a few identified students from 2012 competed in this year’s 2013 Oceania Championships. The OWF was delighted to see this as it fulfils the aims and objectives of the OTIP program. In fact we are confident that quite a few of these young students will be competing at the Olympic Youth Games next year.

This year, the second year of the program, so far it has attracted 2,640 students from 53 schools. And we are confident of breaking last year’s record of 3020 once we get the second batch of entries, which will be finalized in January.

The identified students from different countries have just completed a training camp at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in New Caledonia. The outcome was very successful as all students showed tremendous interest. In fact we are confident that we will see all of the students competing at next year’s Oceania Championships.

Obviously without the financial support of the International Weightlifting Federation and also the Oceania National Olympic Committees, this program would not have been possible. The OWF is indebted to Dr. Tamas Ajan, President of the IWF, for his support and enthusiasm towards this program. Also special thanks to Eva Moska from the IWF for assisting with the organisation of this program.

Also to the Comite Territorial Olympique Sportif (CTOS) and the City of Mont Dore for allowing the students to stay at the Institute. The slogan used for the program was:

You never know how strong you are, if you don’t have a go!

We were very pleased to see that all students were keen to train and learn as much as possible. Correct technique was shown to the students by the resident elite lifters who worked together with the students in every session. We were very pleased also that the lifters blended in very well together, even though they came from many different countries and different cultures. The camp also gave insight to the students of what is expected at international level as well as the role of the IWF and the OWF in the development of the sport.

Check out the full Report here.

Report provided by Paul Coffa, OWF General Secretary