Miriama Taletawa returned home with a silver medal in the junior category of the women’s 76kg event at the 2024 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, which took place at the Vodafone Arena in Suva on Thursday.
Taletawa achieved a lift of 90kg in the snatch and 112kg in the clean and jerk, totaling 202kg. She shared her excitement about receiving the silver medal on Thursday night, saying, “I felt happy and at the same time excited.”
Reflecting on her performance against strong competitors from across the Commonwealth, she described her nerves during her lifts. “When I went up for my first attempt, I was very nervous and scared,” she admitted. However, she was pleasantly surprised by her results. “The first lift, I was shocked because I didn’t expect it to be more than I expected,” she noted.
Her preparation with the Fiji team leading up to the championship has been positive, although training occasionally yielded mixed outcomes. “The atmosphere was perfect, and everything was good. The training with teammates had gone well, but sometimes there could be a good lift or a bad one,” she said.
Post-championship, Taletawa aims to prepare for upcoming competitions and enhance her skills to become a more formidable lifter. She expressed her gratitude to her family and team officials for their unwavering support throughout her weightlifting journey, stating, “Thank you very much for the support and for always being there for me in the good times and bad.”
Taletawa is also the current holder of the Fiji Sportswoman of the Year Award. The competition concludes in the capital today with the final events.