Gommonwealth weightlifting in four years

Sports

Nauru prediction - we will dominate Gommonwealth weightlifting in four years

By Giff Johnson

Koror, Palau - Nauru’s “B” weighlifting team grabbed most of the gold medals - 38 in total - in the weightlifting competition at the Micronesian Games in Palau. But if Micronesians were wowed by that stellar performance, they’ve got more surprises in store - as does the rest of the world which better look out for Nauruan weightlifters in the coming years, said Nauru’s lifting coach.

Nauru will be the team to beat at the next Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England in 2002, Nauru Olympic Committee sports director and weightlifting coach Paul Coffa in an inter view at the Micro Games in Palau. Despite the Nauruans’ impressive display of skill in Palau, Coffa predicted that only Nauru’s weightlifting star Marcus Stephen will win gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in September.

Coffa, the former Australian national weightlifting coach, said other Nauruan weighlifters will be competitive at the Commonwealth Games, but he will be sat isfied if Nauru lifters can earn fourth or fifth place in the competition. But watch out in 2002, when Coffa said “Nauru will dominate weightlifting”. “We can’t take Nauru to the Commonwealth level in only three years,” said Coffa, who took over Nauru’s weightlifting program in late 1994. He predicts that this tiny central Pacific island, with a population of just 7,000 people, will win the prestigious Trafalgar Trophy at the 2002 Games, an award that goes to the best team in the Commonwealth Games.

It’s difficult to dispute Coffa, following Nauru’s showing at the Micronesian Games in Palau in early August. “We were nobody in Guam four years ago (at the last Micronesian Games),” Coffa said. “Here in Palau, we’ve got the highest gold medal tally”. Four years ago, Guam had 17 golds in weightlifting but in Palau it didn’t win a single gold as Nauru dominated. Nauru’s

Stephen, who is ranked number five world wide in the 69 kg wightclass, broke the Commonwealth record in the clean and jerk competition with a lift of 165.5 kg, .5 kg over old record. And with the excep tion of Stephen, Nauru didn’t even bring its top lifters to Koror for this week’s Micronesian Games.

“We brought the “B” team to Palau because we didn’t want to embarass the other islands,” Coffa said. Nauruan Jaxson Jeremiah lifted a total of 250 kg in the 94 kg weightclass to win the gold in Palau.

But, said Coffa, back home are other lifters training for the Commonwealth Games who can lift 70 kg more than Jeremiah.

“We took the “B” team and we still embar rassed (the other lifters),” Coffa said. “Not because they are no good, but because ours are far too good.”

Tjhough they don’t get paid, Coffa described the Nauru lifters as professional athletes in attitude and training. Instead of focusing on 10 or more sports, Nauru has zeroed in on weightlifting. “In 1994, we decided to focus on one sport to be a suc

cess,” he said.

“We didn’t want to compete in 12 and be champion of nothing. We put everything in one to be success ful. Then we can build other sports.” He said that Pacific islands shouldn’t concentrate on sports such as basketball which require tall ath letes because they cannot compete outside the region at the Olympic level. Pacific ath letes, he believes, are built for

weightlifting and

wrestling. “At the

Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, the only gold medal won by a Pacific athlete was Marcus Stephen,” Coffa said. “I say to people (in the region), ‘wake up, you can’t win the Commonwealth because your sports programs aren’t focused’.”

As weightlifting has taken off as the national sport in Nauru, the government has strongly backed the effort. “If we need $lOO,OOO to get our athletes to a competi tion, the government provides $100,000,” he said. “Our weightlifters are assisted fully by the government.” Coffa sings the praises of the women weightlifters on the team. “Nauru’s girls will qualify for the

Olympics in Australia,” he predicted. They

will “make it on merit, not by invitation”.

“Our attitude is that if we don’t qualify, we won’t go.” It’s difficult to get into the top 25 countries in the world to qualify for the Olympics when Nauru has only 7,000 people, he added.

But he believes that his first three and a half years with the Nauru program has demonstrated that Nauru is a power to be reckoned with in weightlifting. ■