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

Toua 40, was among four out of an starting six PNG masters lifters. They 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 lifters. Udu Heni claimed a silver medal after competing against his Australian opponent in the 73kg 50-54 age group.
Current lifters Thelma Toua and Morea Baru are expected to compete. They will join in their age group categories in the last sessions on 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 capable of travel and compete.
“Otherwise we would’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. Hence, the federation was not capable of funding it.

“The federation’s main focus is on our development squad. The elite and seniors are preparing for the 2025 Mini Pacific Games in Palau.”
“But, we hope to look into this in the future. This will be a way step for our former and much older lifters. They wish to represent PNG and have the opportunity at the world stage,” Toua added.
Nine World Masters records have been broken so far in this championship in Fiji. More records were expected in the last two days.