Media Release: Amoe-Tarrant wins first medal for Nauru at CG2018
AMOE-TARRANT WINS NAURU'S FIRST MEDAL AT CG2018
MAINTAINING THE COUNTRY'S MEDAL WINNING RECORD
Nauru's
superheavy weight lifter Charisma Amoe-Tarrant has won Nauru's
first medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games winning the silver medal
in her 90+ kg category with her combined total lifts of 243
kilos.
Her
medal win maintains Nauru's record of winning a medal at every
Commonwealth Games since Nauru first participated in 1990. She
lifted a best snatch of 101kg and best clean and jerk of
142kg.
Nauru
sent 16 athletes in four sports to these Games and winning the
team's first medal is something she says is
indescribable.
"Words
can't explain how happy I am right now. I did this for my family.
For what my family has been through for the past year, I just
wanted to make them proud. But all I can say is that I'm extremely
happy and I hope that I've made everyone proud back home in Nauru
and also my family here in Australia."
Competing in her first Commonwealth Games is amplified
with the pressure of the crowd and the expectations of maintaining
Nauru's medal record.
"That
is the biggest pressure, I'm telling you the truth. When Paul
[Coffa, coach] told me that I had to win a medal otherwise that
(Nauru) record won't be counted anymore so the pressure was on all
the time, and I wanted that medal also because I wanted the medal
[record] to continue for Nauru," Charisma said.
Charisma dropped only one of her six lifts, and owes
that to the distraction of the crowd.
"The
crowd was intense. It was pretty noisy. It was a bit hard for me to
try and focus but I got told off by my coach to focus and block the
crowd. It's an amazing crowd, everyone is so
supportive."
"It's a
good experience, I'm actually happy that it's in Australia as this
is also my home town."
Charisma next goal is to qualify for the 2020 Olympic
Games and "hopefully make history."
Like
most of her fellow lifters, she trains under Paul Coffa at the
Ocean Weightlifting Institute.
Her
message to family, friends and supporters, "I made it, I did
it."
Team
Nauru still has several athletes yet to compete at these
Games.
Nauru
is the smallest country in the Commonwealth, measuring 21 km².
Nauru has performed extremely well in Commonwealth Games
weightlifting, having won 28 medals since the country's Games debut
in 1990.
As the
world's smallest island republic, Nauru boasts the greatest number
of Commonwealth Games medals per capita.
The
arrival of the Queen's Baton for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth
Games (GC2018) was honoured with an extraordinary public
holiday.