Toua claims gold on debut

PAPUA New Guinea's Olympic Weightlifter Dika Toua has claimed gold following her debut in the 2024 United Masters Weightlifting Championship in Suva Fiji.

Toua 40 was among four out of an initial six PNG masters lifters who competed in the women’s 40-44 50kg division.

She lifted a Total of 158kg, recording 68kg in the Snatch and a 90kg lift in the Clean and Jerk.

“I competed last night [Wednesday] in the 50kg 40-44 age group and won gold.”

“Doing better than last week’s competition at the Commonwealth Championships despite the elbow injury,” Toua said.

Toua is among former PNG lifter Udu Heni who also claimed a silver medal after his Australian opponent in the 73kg 50-54 age group.

Current lifters Thelma Toua and Morea Baru are expected to compete in their age group Categories in the last sessions tomorrow [Friday].

“He [Udu] was supposed to travel with two other former lifters Rita Kari and Miria Vagi but due to financial constraints they were not able to travel and compete.

“Otherwise, we could’ve had 6 in total participating at this year’s UMWC.”

Meanwhile Toua who is also the PNG Weightlifting Federation president said this was an individual event, so the federation was not able to fund this event.

“The federation’s main focus is on our development squad, the elite and seniors preparing for the 2025 Mini Pacific Games in Palau.”

“However, we hope to look into this in the future as this will be a way forward for our former and much older lifters who wish to represent PNG and have the opportunity at the world stage,” Toua added.

So far 9 World Masters records have been broken in this championship in Fiji with more expected in the last two days.