Papua New Guinea’s top male weightlifter, Morea Baru, is confident in winning three gold medals in the snatch, clean-and-jerk and total in the 61kg division come November’s Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands.
The 33-year told the Post-Courier he has been training hard and is confident of continuing his dominance.
“I am confident and I will win three gold medals for my country, not just one but three,” the Commonwealth Games champion said.
He said in weightlifting there are three categories of medals — snatch, clean-and-jerk and total.
He said he was confident of winning all the three events and claim gold medals for the country.
Baru has being preparing alongside female weightlifter Dika Toua at her gym in the big village Hanuabada to attend a tournament in India in July.
The weightlifting tournament will serve as a qualify ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“Currently working on formulating a strategy with more focus on his techniques and strength for the qualifying tournament will also help Baru prepare for the SI Games.
PNG has one of the strongest weightlifting teams and obviously they will be a threat to the other Pacific Island rivals.
Baru has been competing on the world and regional stage since 2014 when he represented the country at the Scotland Commonwealth Olympics as a 25-year-old.
He also won three Gold medals in the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.
He also competed at the 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championship in Suva, Fiji and won a total lift of 283 kg.
Baru also competed in the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games which he won silver medals in the two consecutive games.
Baru also topped last year’s Mini Pacific Games in Wallis and Futuna wining three gold medals and was announced the Games top male athlete.
SOURCE: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
