Solomon Islands national ‘weightlifting’ athletes carried out their first Oceania League competition in the country at Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport (SINIS) last Friday.
The online competition that includes Pacific island nations was also part of SINIS ‘Green vs Blue’ in-house competition for athletes to test their trainings.
On a positive note, Weightlifting Coach and SINIS Coach Developer, Wendy Hale is very pleased to see that some of the athletes are starting to put up their personal best.
She says this goes to show that the Elite Training Systems (ETS) at the High Performance Centre is starting to show results - and so far no injuries recorded.
“Though few athletes did not turn up, I hope at the next test in the coming month they will make their way to come in [At the High Performance Centre],” said Hale.
Coach Hale encourages athletes to keep on training hard as there are O-LEAGUE ‘tests’ yet coming up before the Pacific Games this year, 2023.
“At SINIS is a good platform for all weightlifters to keep on going, keep on testing on this platform so that they can see how their performance will go during the Pacific Games,” said Hale.
From feedback, Coach Hale is happy to hear that the athletes are eager to do more training and set their goals for achievement, as this is one area she continues to remind weightlifters on.
“As an athlete, every day he or she come into training set their goal, the expectation is high. So it is good to hear such feedback from the athletes,” said Hale.
Having Solomon Islands very own national flag bearer as Weightlifting Coach Wendy Hale to train future upcoming weightlifters at the High Performance Centre is a boost for the athletes’ trainings.
Coach Hale in history recap won a silver medal and a bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2004, two silver medals at the Mini South Pacific Games in 2005, four gold medals at the Arafura Games in 2007 and two silver medals at the South Pacific Games in 2007.
Having representing Solomon Islands also at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Hale was the country's flagbearer during the opening ceremony.
In the Olympic tournament she ranked 12th in the 58 kg category, with a total of 173 kg. In 2016 after silver medalist Russian 'Marina Shainova' disqualified, Hale stepped up to the eleventh place.
Source: SINIS Media