Lifter Vagi aspires for Olympics

By JAMIE HARO
PAPUA New Guinea’s female weightlifter Idau Vagi aspires to reach the Olympics one day as she continues to build on recent experiences from tournaments in Oceania.
The 18-year-old is one of many rising talents from Hanuabada village who look up to Dika Toua and her sisters who have consistently set benchmarks for female lifters in the country.
Celebrating Olympic Day in Port Moresby on Friday, Vagi said: “The Olympics is the highest order of sporting competitions in the world and to get there it will require a lot of commitment in training. I hope I could reach that stage in the future”.
The 2023 SP Awards junior female athlete of the year has been to five regional events ever since she was given an opportunity to lift weights for Papua New Guinea in 2019.

“My first national duty was in 2019 when I made my debut at the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa,” she said.
“My second one was at the 2022 Mini Pacific Games in Saipan, Northern Marianna Islands.”
Vagi earned her first silver medal in the 45kg in the Oceania Championship which ran parallel with the mini Pacific Games.
She returned to the 2023 Oceania’s in Samoa and won medals when seven juniors represented the country and despite missing out on Team PNG’s final squad to the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands, she returned to the 2024 Oceania to make another appearance for the country. “This year’s Oceania Championship was in New Zealand. This time I got the chance to compete against my role model Dika Toua. She won gold and I won silver medal in the 49kg division at this event,” Vagi said.
“I see her as my mentor and role model. She has really set a bench mark for this code especially at the Olympic level and I want to be like her and hopefully achieve that dream in the future.”