Fijian weightlifter, Apolonia Vaivai will lead the country’s charge during the Oceania Weightlifting Championship in May.

Vaivai switched camp from the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in New Caledonia to train with the elite team at the Weightlifting High Performance Centre in Levuka.

Fiji weightlifting coach, Joe Vueti says the 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist has been a source of motivation to the rest of the squad for the Oceania Championship, which also serves as an Olympic Games qualifying event.

“This will be tougher than the Commonwealth Games because Australia will be sending in their full team and they are already in camp in Canberra. Samoa has been camping since last year, then we have New Zealand and Samoa. All these teams are well funded but I think we have the crowd advantage so we will just go there and give it a go and try and qualify our men and women for the Olympic Games.”

23 countries will compete in Oceania Weightlifting Championship which will be held at the Vodafone Arena in Suva in May 21st- 28th.