Cooks bank

on Pera

Weightlifter Sam Pera is the only Cook Islander to qualify for this year’s Barcelona Olympic Games.

Mindful of the need to have the strongest representation possible the Cook Islands Sports and Olympic Association through its Performance Criteria Committee adopted 1991 South Pacific Games bronze medal standards for those sports which did not have to pre-qualify for Barcelona.

While the athletes failed to make the standards, Pera, competing at the

Oceania Weightlifting Championships

in New Zealand in May, passed the target by five kilograms to ensure his selection for Spain.

He is a novice in international competition, but his weightlifting coach is the Cooks most successful lifter, Mike Tererui. Tereui is a former Olympic, Commonwealth Games and South Pa cific Games competitor and his experi ence is expected to aid Pera.

Even there he will realistically be looking for personal best, national records, and a world ranking as a lifter at his stage of development. But he faces years of training and competition before he can get into the very top bracket, if ever.

While the odds against medal win ning performances are astronomical the Cooks say it is the involvement in the biggest festival of sports in the world that continues to motivate their sports men. This is only the second Olympiad for which the Cook Islands is eligible but it has already enjoyed considerable benefits from being a part of the

Olympic movement.

Besides athletics and weightlifting, the Cook Islands now have a number of established Olympic sports. Tennis,

volleyball, boxing, basketball, canoeing

and board sailing all have their sup porters.

The Cook Islands Sports and Olym pic Association pin shows a sprouting coconut which is apt for the country’s sports. Most are in their infancy with long years of hard work, growth and effort facing them. But if the end result is to have several weightlifters instead of just one at the next Olympics the Cook islands will have begun to truly mature as a sporting nation. □