Dika Toua aiming for more gold at 2015 Pacific Games

COMMONWEALTH Games champion weightlifter DikaToua says she is looking forward to winning three gold medals at this year’s Pacific Games in July.

The pocket dynamo from Hanuabada rose to prominence as a 15-year-old back at the 1999 South Pacific Games, in Guam, competing in the 48kg division, winning three gold medals.

Now 30, the mother-of-two said neither age nor motherhood was a barrier and she still wanted to compete at home and continue her career as a champion.

Toua will be 31 when she steps on to the stage at this year’s Games and would be one of the oldest and but most experienced lifters in Oceania.

The expectation from the home fans would be enormous but after competing at four Olympics and three Commonwealth Games, defending her position as the best female lifter in the 53kg class would be a welcomed challenge and one she was looking forward to.

Toua has been South Pacific champion in 53kg for 15 years, having won Pacific Games gold in Fiji in 2003, Samoa in 2007, and again in New Caledonia in 2011.

Winning 12 gold medals since 1999 is a feat few will come close to matching and Toua is certain of raising her arms in triumph in six months — capping off a career that has spanned three decades. 

But that is not the only job Toua will have at the Games, the dimunitive powerhouse will coach the women’s team.

She counted her blessings at last year’s Glasgow Games, after being awarded the gold medal in the aftermath of a positive drugs test by her 16-year-old Nigerian rival.

“When I won the gold medal, it had motivated me to still go on and this is awesome — especially being a champion and a mother,” Toua said.

Despite her impressive list of achievements, Toua still rates motherhood as her most cherished role s, saying that it in a way gave her the strength to prove her doubters wrong after winning gold at the 2011 Pacific Games in Noumea.

She had given birth to her second child a month before that Games.

Toua said she had not made any definite decisions on retiring from active competition.

“At the moment I won’t be making any decisions to retire but would see how things go in the next few years.”

 She said to be a champion, one needed great commitment and sacrifice. Toua said as she was now competing as a coach and an athlete, her task was to develop today’s athletes to a level where they could realise their potential.

PNG Today / The National