Junior weightlifter upstages seniors

Dislocating a shoulder at her first international weightlifting tournament made Nelson teenager Tia Nacagilevu even more determined to succeed in her sport.

With her height, Tia was a talented goal shoot at intermediate until her father Joni Nacagilevu thought weightlifting would give her an even stronger and faster base for netball and touch football. So dad took Tia down to the Nelson gym where he had trained as a teenager and his old coach Lester Keene took her under his wing.

“Tia was a lot better than Joni. Her attitude is totally better,” grins Lester, who has been her mentor for the past five years.

Mind you, Joni reckons he was “lured away” by rugby and went on to represent Nelson Bays as a prop more than 20 years ago.

“I am really proud of Tia. She is so focussed and determined,” declares Joni, who reveals how she dislocated her shoulder attempting her first lift at a tournament in Samoa last October.

“I was just annoyed and wanted to come back even stronger,” says Tia, who still suffered a few tweaks before going to the Youth World Championships in Peru in May. Fast forward to the national champs in Auckland where Tia was competing in the 87 kilogram junior division.

She had snatched 93kgs but struggled to lift 119kgs in her second clean and jerk and was intending to finish with a 122kg attempt to clinch the title.

“Then another lifter, Hayley Whiting, told me if I went up to 124kgs I could win the senior grade as well. It was pretty tough but all the adrenaline and hype then made it feel easy at the time,” says the 17-year-old.

So how did the seniors react to being upstaged?

“I think they were all shocked seeing as I was a junior.”

Tia puts her success down to her hard work. “Nine to ten training sessions a week. It is tiring but I can still handle it.”

Leaving high school to study on line has helped balance her training schedule.

“She is in the gym all the time just wanting to get better,” confirms her coach.

“He is really good at critiquing my technique and helps me when I have bad days in the gym,” Tia says.

The next big goal is the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Uzbekistan in May 2025, and long-term, the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Lester competed as lightweight lifter in the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games.

“Back then Nelson was a real weightlifting stronghold and we provided about half the lifting team,” recalls Lester.

He now coaches six to 10 lifters and agrees Tia’s success could attract more to the Nelson Weightlifting Club’s Vanguard Street base. Tia, who is Fijian-Tongan, also hopes to inspire others to take up the sport as one of her five younger sisters just has.