31 Jul 2014

Kiribati wins first Commonwealth Games gold

11:54 am on 31 July 2014

Kiribati weightlifter David Katoatau has won the country's first ever Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow.

Competing in the men's 105kg divison, the 30 year old lifted a combined total of 348kg to beat New Zealand's Stanislav Chalaev by 7kg.

Katoatau, who finished fourth in the 94kg weight class at the Delhi Games in 2010, was in third place after the snatch and waited until all other competitors had completed the clean and jerk before taking his first attempt.

But that lift of 194kg was all that was needed to secure gold, before he improved his winning margin with a 200kg effort on his second attempt.

Samoa's Tovia Opeloge was fourth with a total of 331kg, while Faavae Faaululi finished eighth in the event he won in Delhi four years ago.

Earlier this morning, Samoa's Ele Opeloge won silver in the women's 75kg category.

The 29 year old was unable to defend her title won four years ago in Delhi, lifting a total of 271kg, nine kgs behind gold medal winner Maryam Usman from Nigeria, and 14kg behind her own Games Record.

Fellow Samoan Iuniarra Sipaia finished fifth with a total lift of 233kg, the Cook Islands' Luisa Peters was sixth with 225kg while Tonga's Suliana Fate and Niue's Vitolia Tauasi finished at the bottom of the field.