The Samoa team picked up 8 gold medals at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Fiji. Photo: Facebook/Samoa Weightlifting Federation
Samoa's weightlifting team came away from the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships with eight gold medals and a number of Commonwealth and Oceania records.
The Samoa Weightlifting Federation said it was "overall a very successful campaign".
Samoa took eight gold, a silver and a bronze medal, and also set four Commonwealth and four Oceania records.
The Samoa Observer reported the entire team has qualified for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The Opeloge siblings, Jack, Don and their younger sister Avatu, each claimed a gold medal for Samoa.
In other results, Taniela Rainibogi secured Fiji a gold medal, lifting 167kg in the snatch, and setting a new Commonwealth record with a 211kg lift in the clean and jerk, in the 109kg weight class.
Fiji's Nehemiah Elder, 15, won double gold in the men's junior and youth categories, and took silver in the senior category, while also setting a new Commonwealth Youth record in the snatch.
Fiji's 2023 Sportswoman of the Year, Miriama Taletawa, went home with a silver medal in the junior category of the women's 76kg event.
Taletawa lifted 90kg in the snatch and 112kg in the clean and jerk, for a total of 202kg.
"I felt happy and at the same time excited," she told The Fiji Times.
"When I went up on my first attempt, I was very nervous and scared at the same time.
"But I did my first attempt, then a second time with the same result, and I was shocked to see my result afterwards in the snatch category."
Vanuatu took a bronze medal, with its weightlifting federation saying the team also returns with both competition and personal bests.
