Oceania Weightlifting Federation general secretary Paul Coffa believes that Fiji can qualify for the Rio Olympic Games in August.

Fiji will be hosting its first major weightlifting event since 2010 which is also a qualification event for Rio with a total of 20 countries taking part at the Vodafone Arena from May 24-28.

Coffa said with the standard of weightlifting increasing, Fiji could possibly finish in the top four in the men and women to qualify for Rio.

“The standard of weightlifting is very high at these games and in every category but I think Fiji will qualify in the men and in the women, in my opinion,” Coffa said.

“The men could possibly come in the top three or four and so will the women but I think it will be very hard to beat Samoa in the mens and Australia for the womens.

“There will be many top officials from other parts of the world who will be coming down because they know the event will be a qualification one.

“The standard in weightlifting in the Oceania is improving at a high rate and that is what makes the Oceania so strong and so well organised which is a big plus.”

There will be a total of eight categories for the men and seven for the women.

To qualify for the Rio Olympics Fiji will need to place in the top five in a team event for the men and first four for the women in order to qualify one lifter for the Rio Olympics.

The women will start off with the 48kilos while the men will start off with 56 kilos.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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