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Tuesday, 16 March 2021
The African Weightlifting Championships have been postponed again less than three weeks before they were due to start, adding further confusion to the qualifying programme for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Madagascar will still be the host nation but the Championships will now take place during May - probably in the week between 15 to 22 - rather than April 2 to 7 as planned.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is faced with a further challenge as it attempts to adapt the qualifying system to make it fair for all athletes.
Most weightlifters around the world, of whom about 900 feature in the Olympic rankings, will be able to add crucial qualifying points at their Continental Championships, but some cannot compete.
Oceania Weightlifting
17 March, 2021, 6:20 am
Golden girl Eileen Cikamatana and her coach at the 2019 IWF Grand Prix in Lima, Peru. Picture: SUPPLIED/AWF
After eight months and nine competition rounds, Australia finished second in the Oceania League after defeating Fiji in the final match of the tournament.
The Aussies only lost one match in the whole tournament, beaten by Samoa in round two, but winning the match with New Zealand by a very slim margin in Round 6 was crucial to Australia holding on to second place outright.
Forty individual lifters contributed to the Australian team’s success, including 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Eileen Cikamatana who topped the women’s division.
Tokyo 2020 weightlifting qualifying disrupted again as African Championships off insidethegames.biz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from insidethegames.biz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.