OCEANIA WEIGHTLIFTING FEDERATION
Newsletter December, 2020
THE OWF WISHES EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY FESTIVAL SEASON
The Coronavirus Pandemic – Covid 19 – as we all know has truly devastated sports around the world, let alone lives and
business.
So many junior and youth lifters for the first time in many, many years, have not been able to participate at the annual world
junior championships and world youth championships. We feel sorry for those lifters, where this year for them was their last
year in either the junior or youth categories. They will never be able to regain the lost year of 2020.
The OWF this year has done everything possible – given the limitations - to provide the lifters from our region the opportunity
of competing in their own countries in order to keep the momentum of being involved continuing.
Since the last newsletter, the League Tournament, which started in the month of July has been a great success involving 140
lifters month after month. We have now completed the seventh round and below is the League ladder to date with two months
to go. The eighth round will be held next month, January 22-23 with the final round in the month of February 19-20. Apart
from Samoa who is simply unbeatable, every other team has the possibility in the next two months to put themselves in a better
placing. It is interesting to note that the OWF has received emails from fifteen countries outside of our region, praising the
League Tournament and wanting to know how it was established.
Place Teams Round W D L Points Aggregate score
1 SAMOA 7 7 21 8578.35
2 AUSTRALIA 7 6 1 19 3585.51
3 NAURU 7 5 2 17 2414.35
4 NEW ZEALAND 7 5 2 17 2014.54
5 PACIFIC 1 7 3 4 13 -2266.39
6 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 7 3 4 13 -2670.48
7 KIRIBATI 7 3 4 13 -2787.47
8 SOLOMON ISLANDS 7 2 5 11 -2117.75
9 FIJI 6 1 5 8 -1591.75
10 PACIFIC 2 7 0 7 7 -2066.93
Seminars: In the last three months three successful seminars were webcast. The technical seminar featured Sam Coffa
and Pedro Sanchez. The coaching seminar featured Lyn Jones and the medical seminar featured Dr. Lisamoni Kami who spoke
on anti-doping, and Dr. Jaqueline Kami who spoke on nutrition. The seminars attracted viewers from 30 to 40 nations. Again
many viewers complimented the seminars and their contents.
Sam Coffa Pedro Sanchez Lyn Jones Jaqueline & Moni Kami
OWF Online Cup: For the first time in our region an online tournament was held on December 5th & 6th. Forty
top lifters from our regional countries took part in the OWF online Cup. We did expect to have problems with the network
signals and unfortunately our expectations were correct - with quite a few lifters missing their lifts simply because the signal
from their countries fell out. Nevertheless the tournament was viewed by 39 countries. There were some excellent results and
the top five place getters on Sinclair formula received prize money
WOMEN D/B Nat. B/W Total Sinclair Price money
1 CIKAMATANA Eileen 18.09.1999 AUS 85.5 268 301.2411 AU$4000.00
2 ELLIOTT Kiana 27.07.1997 AUS 63.5 207 270.0009 AU$3000.00
3 SIVE PETELO Leotina Kolotita 18.07.2001 SAM 80.72 225 259.0707 AU$2000.00
4 SIPAIA Iuniarra 25.06.1993 SAM 120.55 247 251.9983 AU$1000.00
5 TOUA Loa Dika 23.06.1984 PNG 48.95 154 240.3761 AU$500.00
MALE D/B NAT B/W TOTAL SINCLAIR PRICE MONEY
1 MAO Sanele 09.09.1985 SAM 108.97 387 416.8002 AU$4000.00
2 OPELOGE Don 13.05.1999 SAM 95.89 366 412.3862 AU$3000.00
3 LITI David Andrew 11.07.1996 NZL 175.02 390 390.001 AU$2000.00
4 BARU Morea 15.04.1990 PNG 60.9 260 374.855 AU$1000.00
5 MOSES Ezekiel 02.07.2001 NRU 73 285 366.4233 AU$500.00
The OWF wishes to thank Pedro Sanchez, Ian Moir, Trent Dabwido, Lilly Coffa, Phil Maunder, and Barbara Grieve, for
assisting as ITO’s for the two days and a special thanks must also go to Bowen Stuart, the Australian Weightlifting
Federation, Information and Communications Manager. Bowen provided all the equipment for the online tournament and
communicated with all countries participating well before the event with regards the connectivity test, video conference
regarding the technology format , the set up of the event etc.
The best male and female of the OWF Online Cup Winners; Sanele Mao (Samoa) and Eileen Cikamatana (Australia)
CONTRIBUTION TO OWF COUNTRIES
The OWF has donated to each member federation, seven pairs of
weightlifting boots / nine belts / twenty pairs of straps. These were forwarded
by air freight, with most of the countries having already received them in time
for Christmas. There is still four more countries waiting, the packages are in
transit but a being held up due to coronavirus and flight schedules.
OTHER NEWS
• Again all weightlifting events have been postponed and rescheduled. The World Juniors which were to be held in
Jeddah in March have now been postponed to May 23-31. The Oceania Championships due to the IWF scheduled
Electoral Congress for the end of March, has been postponed and re-scheduled to the 14th / 17th April. The IWF
Electoral Congress will be held in Istanbul, Turkey at the end of March.
• The OWF held a final Executive Board Meeting for the year on the 18th December. Attending this meeting as guests
were Mr. Mohammed Jalood – IWF General Secretary. He highlighted to the Executive Board the work of the IWF, in
particular the preparation for the Olympic Games scheduled for July 23rd – August 8th, 2021. He also explained the
problems that Covid 19 has created for all 20 events of the calendar.
• Mr. Jalood, did praise highly the OWF work in producing the League Tournament, Online Tournament, Online
Seminars, and also the contribution financially to lifters who have a chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games.
• Sam Coffa, attended the meeting as a guest, where he highlighted matters pertaining to the Commonwealth Games.
The final qualification events and the number of lifters in each category. The Commonwealth Weightlifting Federation
will by the end of this year notify member nations of the venue for the 2021 Commonwealth Championships.
• The 2021 Calendar of Events will be published at the end of the year.
• The League Tournament will continue again, but this time in three groups. League One, League Two and League
Three. Further details on this will be sent to the countries early in the new year.
• Also included will be technical and coaching seminars in 2021 to be held in PNG, Tahiti, Northern Marianas, FSM
and Kiribati.
• The weightlifting event of the COOK ISLAND GAMES was an outstanding success. 84 lifters competed, a record
number not before seen in the Cook Islands. There was some excellent results coming from the lifters. Congratulations
to the President, of the Cook Islands Weightlifting Federation Dr. Teariki Puni and its Committee. And especially Luisa
Peters, the coach of weightlifting who did an outstanding job.
• Congratulations to Nauru’s Youth sensational weightlifter, Nancy Abouke for winning three bronze medals in the IWF
YOUTH World Cup online tournament. She won three bronze medals in the 71kg category with a Snatch of 90kg,
Clean and Jerk of 110kg and a total of 200kg.
DOUGLAS MEA IWILA JACOBS
Within 10 days of each other, PNG and the Weightlifting fraternity has lost two iconic weightlifting figures and two very
dear friends. Douglas Mea and Iwila Jacob both have passed away.
Both were lifters, both were coaches ,both were technical officials of Papua New Guinea Weightlifting Federation. What a great
loss, not only to their respective families and friends, but also to our sport and in particular to PNG.
Douglas Mea lifted and represented PNG for many years at Oceania Championships and regional games. His true gift was in
coaching. He had an eye in being able to identify lifters right from the start. Hundreds of lifters were coached by Douglas in
Hanuabada under that famous mango tree.
Douglas was the coach of Dika Toua at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, when she made Olympic history by being the first
female lifter in the world to lift a weight at an Olympic Games for women. She was the first female lifter to step on an Olympic
platform and she was only 16 years old. And Douglas Mea was there right beside her.
There are too many lifters to mention, who Douglas Mea had coached. However I do need to mention some of them, to show you
the gift he had in identifying and coaching world class lifters. Lifters such as his nephew Steven Kari – dual Commonwealth Games
Gold Medallist. Dika Toua – Gold and Silver medal at the Commonwealth Games and 12 times Oceania Champion. Morea Baru
– Silver Medal at the Commonwealth Games. And the list goes on and on, lifters such as Thelma Toua, Toua Udia, Sandra
Ako, Rita Kari, Guba Hale, Fred Oala, Lorraine Harry, Jeffrey Robby, Kathleen Hare, Dogodo Itolo, Gloria Kimbu, Monalisa
Kassman, Douglas Mea Jun, Joe Namuno, Leo Kivave, Margaret Luke, Pierce Wesley, Danny Ari, Peter Kilapa, Paul Enuki, Janet
Chan and others.
He gave all of these lifters the chance to not only compete internationally but also many of them, he would send to the Oceania
Weightlifting Institute in order to further their opportunities at the international level. The technique of his lifters was superb. He
knew exactly how to fine tune the lifters. His death is a great loss to the lifters of PNG and the region.
Iwila Jacob, competed at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. He was for many years an official of the PNG
Weightlifting Federation. He also had an eye for coaching, producing quite a number of lifters. In recent years he was based at the
High Performance Centre in Port Moresby where he assisted so many athletes in strength training. But his true calling was as an
international technical official. He refereed at so many Games and so many Championships. Iwila was an IWF international
technical official.
Again, losing these two weightlifting icons, is truly a tragedy for the sport. On behalf of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation and
the Commonwealth Weightlifting Federation, we extend our sincere condolences to their respective families and to the PNG
Weightlifting Federation and the PNG National Olympic Committee.
Paul Coffa MBE
OWF GENERAL SECRETARY
