Pacific champion weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana has won another gold medal for Australia in the 87kg women’s category in Birmingham 2022. Cikamatana was able to set a new games record for her category in the snatch, clean & jerk and overall.
More importantly Eileen Cikamatana becomes the first woman to win two Commonwealth Games gold medal for two different countries.
She last won in Gold Coast 2018 in the women’s 90kg whilst representing Fiji (she was only an 18 year old back then), but now Cikamatana has captured gold for new home, Australia.
She was also the first woman to ever win an individual gold medal for her former country Fiji.
Now, still under the tutelage of long-time coach Paul Coffa, Cikamatana continues to write her name into the history books as one of the best weightlifters to come out of the Pacific region.
She also won 3 gold medals in the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini-Games in June this year.
Overwhelmed, the young champion did not shy away from her emotions as tears of joy streamed down her face as she stepped onto the podium to receive her honours once again.
“Representing green and gold is one in a life-time opportunity and for that I’m so thankful,” she said.
“All I wanted to do is win more gold and medals for Australia and break more records and make the country proud”, Cikamatana added.
The weightlifting superstar had hoped to represent Australia back in the Tokyo Olympics, but weightlifting eligibility rules stated otherwise.
This time Eileen Cikamatana made sure to state her case against all odds and Australia Weightlifting Federation was there to seize the opportunity in moulding Cikamatana to become even better.
What a journey it has been for Cikamatana. At the age of 22 years old her weightlifting career will continue to soar to greater heights as she develops her craft in Australia.
One Response
Comments are closed.