Talat Mehmood

Profile: Marcus Stephen

Thanks to a stroppy teacher

MARCUS Stephen can thank a stroppy teacher for pushing him into the sport which netted him a gold and two silver medals for Nauru.

The tiny island has no weightlifting facilities and Stephen says the sport was unknown to him until he arrived at St Bede’s boarding school in Melbourne four years ago. One sports master spot ted his potential for weightlifting im mediately. “He told the other sports masters not to coach me,” the 20-year old recalls now, with a wry laugh. “So I had no choice. Usually I played football, cricket and soccer . . . then nothing, just

weightlifting.”

Stephen came third in his first college weightlifting competition and was invited to join the prestigious Hawthorn Club, “the best in Victoria,” where he flourished under the guidance of Au stralian team coach Paul Coffa.

His successes were quick: first at Oceania in 1988, second at the highly competitive Moomba Festival last year and 13th at the World Juniors in Flor ida. Then as Nauru’s first and only

Games competitor, Stephen snatched

112.5 kg and single-handedly put his country “on the map”.

The crowd, quite literally, went wild.

Jubilant supporters partied in the aisles, waving Nauru’s blue and yellow flag.

Stephen was a big audience favourite and not just because what seemed like every Nauruan in the country was there to watch him lift. Staff at the Auckland consulate had been given the day off, joined by another 60 including Stephen’s mother Sunshine and half his family who had flown in from Nauru the day before.

After the ease of his gold in the snatch section it was clear Stephen stood an ex cellent chance of leading the clean and jerk section and also winning the com bined gold. But the crowd’s enthusiasm was to prove his downfall: their huge shouts of encouragement as he “cleaned” his final 145 kg lift broke Stephen’s in tense concentration and the “jerk” was lost.

But his supporters were more than de lighted with the two silvers to go with his gold. Father and team manager Lawr ence Stephen, a former Health Minister, was right on the spot to watch his son’s victory. “If we’re not still in a state of shock we’ll declare a national holiday,” he said afterwards. The medals quickly

changed owner and Stephen’s nephew,

Raines, wore them blithely through all the media fuss. Yes, perhaps he’d take up weightlifting, although as Lawrence

Stephen cautioned;. “Maybe one weight

lifter is enough for now.”

Stephen himself was pleased but not

overwhelmed by his gold medal victory:

“In training I’ve done more.” He con firmed the crowd’s support had thrown him off his final lift, probably costing him two more gold medals. “I’m dis appointed but that’s sport, one mistake and you miss out. There’s always next time.”

His next international competition is the Moomba, six weeks after the Games.

Stephen was hoping to get a week off to fly home to Nauru before enrolling in business studies at the Melbourne Insti tute of Technology. And even on the thresh-hold of bigger successes, he’s already decided that retirement will see him back in Nauru developing youth sports.

And he shows a quiet wit to shrug off attempts by the more insulated British journalists to fit him into a star-struck, small-island boy mould: Were you frightened arriving in Mel bourne for the first time? “No, not

really.”

Will you stay in Australia now? “I’m not an Australian, I hold a Nauru pass port so I can’t stay.”

Will you find it hard going back to Nauru? “No, I don’t think so.”

Is there a special way of celebrating on Nauru? “Yes, a party.”

Any special drink to celebrate?

Stephen glances at coach Coffa, and grins: “Oh, Fosters I would think.”

Coffa applied to let Stephen lift at the Games but it wasn’t until three days be fore the competition itself that the Com

monwealth Federation general assembly

accepted Nauru as a bonafide competi tor. “We’ve treated him as the 11th member of the team,” says Coffa. “He’s a lucky kid but he deserves it.” I=l

Talat Mehmood

Gold: nephew Raines help champion Marcus Steven celebrate for Nauru.