Weightlifters Excel

Weightlifting standards have continually improved since this event was first introduced into the Games in Noumea in 1966, and there were few records left intact by the time contestants had finished with the Papeete programme.

Western Samoa’s Paul Wallwork, first seen in Noumea where he took the gold medal in the middleweight division, repeating the feat in Port Moresby in 1969, made it a hat trick in Papeete—again with a record lift.

He has recently been training in Sydney and these days sports a goatee beard.

Wallwork was the most impressive

individual wteightlifter at Papeete,

and overall the Western Samoans gave the best account of themselves, with four golds, one silver and two bronze. New Guinea wasn’t far be hind, with young Papuan Sibona Oka, who got a gold and a record in the bantamweight division, outstanding for his age, especially in style.

Fiji started off well with a silver on the first day but never kept up the standard.

It was generally agreed that it is time to improve on refereeing stan dards in weightlifting. Because of the difficulty of finding referees with ex perience, refereeing has not kept up with the improvement of the weight lifters.