Coach Loses Sports Car
Paul Coffa, the Oceania Weightlifting Federation General Secretary and coach of the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Sigatoka, Fiji, on Tuesday, 20th September, lost his red sports car to one of his young weightlifters, 21 year old Yukio Peter from Nauru.Coffa promised Yukio on his 21st birthday on January 29th this year, that the moment he clean & jerked 200kg in the 77kg category, he would hand over the keys of his sports car to him. At that time Yukio was doing 182.5kg. Tuesday night in training at the Institute in Sigatoka, Fiji, in preparation for the Commonwealth & Oceania Championships to be held in Melbourne on October 5th - 9th, Yukio clean & jerked 202.5kg weighing 76.7kg. Unfortunately the lift cannot be claimed as a record as he did it in training. Nevertheless Coffa kept his end of the bargin and handed over the keys to his sportscar. Coffa said that, " a performance such as this deserves a car. "Yukio is only 7.5kg away from the world record and there is no question now that he is after the gold medal in Beijing. Some of his training performances are 160kg snatch, 190kg power clean and back squat 280kg.Ten days ago he officially in competition totaled 350kg. Coffa has been training Yukio since the age of 12 years. Yukio trains 11 times per week and never misses a training session. He placed 8th in the 69kg category at the Athens Olympics with a total of 302.5kgYukio Peter is an IOC Olympic Solidarity Scholarship holder. PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OCEANIA WEIGHTLIFTING