{"id":832320,"date":"2026-07-30T00:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832320\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T00:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:20:14","slug":"australian-weightlifter-eileen-cikamatana-claims-emotional-commonwealth-games-gold-after-olympics-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832320\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana claims emotional Commonwealth Games gold after Olympics heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana struggled through days when she wanted to give up and “be a baby in my mum’s arms”.<\/p>\n

But the 26-year-old has found consolation after her Paris Olympics heartbreak<\/a>, bouncing back in Glasgow to win her third Commonwealth Games gold medal.<\/p>\n

Cikamatana was a class above in the women’s 86kg event, nailing a 108kg snatch and a 140kg clean and jerk for a Games record total of 248kg.<\/p>\n

England’s silver medallist Madias Ngake lifted a total of 239kg, while Canadian teenager Rose Beaudoin (230kg total) took bronze.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Eileen Cikamatana in action during the weightlifting in Glasgow. (Getty Images: Francois Nel)<\/p>\n

In tears after narrowly missing out on a bronze medal when she finished fourth on Olympic debut at Paris 2024, Cikamatana was in tears again in Glasgow, just of a different kind.<\/p>\n

“Mission accomplished. I came for one thing, and I got that one thing,” Cikamatana beamed.<\/p>\n

“I had days that I just wanted to go back home and be a baby in my mum’s arms.<\/p>\n

“I had days that I wanted to exit the door, but I’m glad I pulled that left leg back in.<\/p>\n

“The original plan was to finish off after the Paris Olympics, but we (with coach Paul Coffa) didn’t get what we wanted.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Madias Ngake (left), Eileen Cikamatana, and Rose Beaoudin celebrate their medals. (Getty Images: Francois Nel)<\/p>\n

Cikamatana is the third female weightlifter in history to achieve the Commonwealth Games feat of three titles in a row, joining India’s Mirabai Chanu (women’s 48kg) and Canadian weightlifter Maude Charron (63kg) after they also won gold in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has dominated her weightlifting categories since winning gold for Fiji in the 90kg event at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.<\/p>\n

Cikamatana then switched allegiance to Australia the following year due to a local dispute with Fiji’s weightlifting governing body, and to keep working with Coffa and his wife Lily.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Eileen Cikamatana (centre) representing Fiji at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games. (Getty Images: Scott Barbour)<\/p>\n

Taking out the 87kg title at the 2022 Birmingham edition<\/a>, Cikamatana is also the first woman to win Commonwealth Games gold for two countries in an individual sport.<\/p>\n

Cikamatana is adamant about making the podium at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but has pressing matters to attend to first.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to go have some cake, because I’ve been wanting to have them ever since I got here,” Cikamatana said.<\/p>\n

“Cheesecake, obviously. I’m a cheesecake girl.”<\/p>\n

Ngake’s incredible journey to silver<\/p>\n

Ngake took silver in a remarkable career comeback.<\/p>\n

The Cameroon-born English weightlifter was belatedly awarded a bronze medal from the 2012 Olympics after multiple rivals returned positive drug tests.<\/p>\n

But the medal was sent to Cameroon, and she has never seen it.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Madias Ngake absconded from the Cameroon Olympics team in 2012. (Getty Images: Francois Nel)<\/p>\n

Ngake, fearing persecution in her birth country because of her sexuality, absconded from the Cameroon team during the London Games.<\/p>\n

Living homeless in London before working as a cleaner for 10 years, Ngake rekindled her desire to compete after a chance meeting with her former Cameroonian coach during the 2022 Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old, sporting sparkling red hair that matched her England uniform, threatened to pull off an upset after setting a Games snatch record of 111kg, but fell short of setting a clean-and-jerk benchmark of 135kg.<\/p>\n

Cikamtana’s win is Australia’s third weightlifting medal in Glasgow, with youngster Ollie Saxton emulating his father and four-time Games medallist Andrew Saxton by winning bronze in the men’s 94kg event earlier on day six of the Games.<\/p>\n

Saxton had logged a total of 336kg, pulling off a 156kg snatch and a 180kg clean-and-jerk lift.<\/p>\n

Saxton finished on the podium 40 years after his father won 100kg sub-heavyweight bronze for England at his debut Games in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana struggled through days when she wanted to give up and “be a baby in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,16742,404817,8328,404818,85,93545],"class_list":["post-832320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-commonwealth-games","tag-eileen-cikamatana","tag-glasgow","tag-madias-ngake","tag-sports","tag-weightlifting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}