Apolonia Vaivai aims for Gold again at Commonwealth Championships
Double Commonwealth Championships Gold medallist Apolonia Vaivai will look to win another Gold medal when she competes at the Commonwealth Championships and Oceania Weightlifting Championships in Gold Coast, Australia. She is competing in the 69kg bodyweight category.
Apolonia won Gold medals in the 75kg bodyweight category at the Commonwealth Championships in 2015 in Pune, India and again in 2016 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She is the only weightlifter from Fiji to ever win a Commonwealth Title.
Apolonia is also the defending champion from the 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championships.
She won Gold in the 69 kg bodyweight category, in Suva, with a lift of 206kg, by beating Eileen Cikamatana by a mere 1 kg, the narrowest of margins, to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Vaivai, Manueli Tulo, Taniela Rainibogi and Poama Qaqa have been preparing for the past several weeks in Suva.
They will be joined in Gold Coast by Eileen Cikamatana who is training under Paul Coffa at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Noumea.
The team departs for Gold Coast on Sunday 3rd September with competition starting on Tuesday 5th.
Apart from honours at the Commonwealth and Oceania Championships, the five athletes will be seeking to qualify for the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Gold Coast in April 2018.
The Fiji Team will be led Manager Chris Yee, National Coaches Joe Vueti and Henry Elder.
Source: fijivillage.com
