By JULIE ASH
Wellington's Keisha-Dean Soffe is a step closer to a place in the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team after reaching the qualifying mark for the second time at the Oceania and South Pacific championships in Auckland.
Soffe lifted 95kg in the snatch and 115kg in the clean and jerk for
a total of 210kg in the 75kg plus division, which is the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard.
She also reached the mark at the national championships in August.
National coach Richard Dryden said it was an encouraging performance from Soffe, who finished sixth in the world junior championships in July.
"It was a good effort and it was good to see some consistency," he said.
Soffe joins the two Olympic representatives, Olivia Baker and Nigel Avery, as the only lifters to have reached the qualifying standards.
At the weekend's championships, Chris Olney, Terry Hughes and Grant Cavit all showed they are still in with a shot to qualify before the mid-April deadline.
Olney finished third in the 62kg division with a total of 217.5kg. He needs a total of 240kg to qualify.
Terry Hughes equalled his personal best of 255kg in the 69kg division to finish second but needs to reach 265kg.
Grant Cavit finished with a total of 297.5kg in the 85kg division, which gave him second place but did not meet the qualifying mark of 315kg.
Tongan Tavita Ngalu, who is part of the New Zealand squad, won the super-heavyweight division with a total lift of 322.5kg. He needs 340kg to qualify.
Nicole Goffin broke a New Zealand record in the 69kg division with a total of 165kg, which secured her second place. But she is a long way from the 190kg qualifying mark.
"We certainly would have liked to have seen some more improvement since the nationals but the competition was quite intense," Dryden said.
"Luckily they have still got five months to qualify."
The next major event is not until next year's Oceania championships in Fiji in April.
"But before then we hope to hold one or two competitions but any regional, national or international event is a qualifying opportunity."
