Medal winner takes dad on podium – via cellphone

NZ weightlifter Keisha-Dean Soffe during the medal prentation. Picture / Brett Phibbs

When Keisha-Dean Soffe won a medal at the Commonwealth Games today she wanted her father to be there to share it with her. 

The only problem was her dad, Blackie, doesn't fly. So Soffe did the next best thing and took him up to the podium with her via her cellphone.  

It was an extraordinary sight. Soffe, who had just finished third in the women's 75kg and over weightlifting final had a New Zealand flag draped over one shoulder and the cellphone attached to her ear, waving to her mother Sandra who was in the crowd.  

"I was up on the podium talking to him," Soffe said afterwards. "He sounds pretty stoked."  

Blackie, watching the action on television back home in the small Taranaki town of Waitara must have realised his daughter was about to break every medal ceremony protocol in the book. He proved that you're never too old for a telling off either.  

"Dad was telling me to stop being rude," she laughed.  

Soffe lifted a total of 224kg, a personal best, but faced a nervous wait as training partner and friend Sioe Haioti of Niue stared down a 131kg clean and jerk that would have lifted her into the bronze medal position. 

While the friendship will remain intact, Soffe said for a while it had to be put to one side. 

"I was so nervous out the back there," she said. "For those few hours, I didn't know her. I was saying miss, miss, miss." Haioti did and it was time to ring dad.  

Indians Geeta Rani and Simple Kaur Bhumrah finished first and second respectively with Games record lifts.