Tongan weightlifter competes against the world’s best

By Makereta Komai, PACNEWS Editor in Tokyo‍‍

TOKYO, 03 AUGUST 2021 (PACNEWS) --- Manumua managed a snatch of 103kg and clean and jerked 125kg, which gave a total lift of 228kg, seven places down from the winner Li. Li picked a snatch of 140kg and clean and jerk of 180kg – both recorded as a new Olympic record.

Silver went to Emily Campbell of Britain with a total lift of 283kg and bronze to American lifter Sarah Robles, with a total lift of 282kg.

Manumua’s lift on Monday was slightly better than her total (snatch, clean and jerk) record of 227kg lifted in Pattaya in Thailand two years ago at the World Championships.

One of the most awaited lift of the night was New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard, who made Olympic history when she competed in weightlifting as the first openly transgender woman to participate in Tokyo 2020.

Hubbard, 43, was one of 10 competitors in the heavyweight division and had an outside chance at a medal. But she failed to complete any of her three lifts in the first half of the programme, eliminating her from medal contention. After her third miss, she pounded her heart, lifted her hands in thanks, took a bow and left the stage and did not complete the clean and jerk lift.

A half-hour into the competition, Hubbard took the stage. Her first lift at 120kg came after half of 10 athletes in the group had completed their three lifts in the snatch portion of the programme. Amid the whiz of camera shutters, she lifted the bar but lost control of it as it fell behind her. She shook her head and left the stage. She also missed her second two lifts before the athletes took a break.

No doubt, the young athlete from Tonga, who is based in the U.S will have a lot of takeaways and learning experiences from Monday night’s weightlifting competition.

Manumua began weightlifting at age 13 at an after-school club at Lincoln High School in San Francisco, CA, United States of America.  She was introduced to weightlifting by coach Kevin Doherty, who also worked as a teacher at her school. 

"When I was a freshman in high school, the weightlifting coach asked me to join weightlifting. I said, 'Mmm, no thanks. Not my thing'. 

“But he kept at it. For weeks. Finally, I tried it out. He was right. I really liked weightlifting. It was definitely weird at first; my body had never done anything like it before. But I grew to love the feeling of working out. I also loved my teammates and the competitions,” she said on her Tokyo 2020 athletes profile page.