THE 2014 OTIP Program – Discovering talent!
The Oceania Talent Identification Program (OTIP), implemented by the OWF three years ago to identify talented students throughout the schools of the Oceania region, and in particular the Pacific Island nations was a great success in 2014. Financial support is provided by the IWF in the framework of the Development Program’s contribution for Continental Federations. This year 4,338 students from 166 schools and 14 countries took part in the program; almost 1,700 more than last year’s results. (2312 boys and 2021 girls). The program has grown each year and it was rewarding to see so many of these students who have participated in the OTIP program competing in the Oceania Championships, Olympic Youth Qualification, Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the recent Olympic Youth Games in Nanjing. This is truly amazing in that such a short time the national federations have been able to tap in on the work that they have done at the school level producing the next generation of champion weightlifters. Special thanks must go to those individual weightlifting federations who took part in the program and in particular to those individual coaches/lifters/volunteers, who took the time to go to the schools and successfully run the program. Among the talents participating in the OTIP, we can name KATOATAU David who celebrated Kiribati’s first Commonwealth Games medal at Glasgow 2014. Besides him individual weightlifting federations, individual coaches, lifters and volunteers took part in the program. We appreciate the efforts of Paul Coffa, OWF General Secretary who built up the project and promotes weightlifting in the Oceania Region. Check out the full report
