Fiji’s 2018 Commonwealth Games lone gold medalist and weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana and 21 other weightlifters from Levuka have decided to boycott a number of international events following the removal of Joeli Vueti from the position of national coach of Weightlifting Fiji.
In a statement released by Cikamatana today she says that she has pulled out of the Oceania Championship next month in New Caledonia, the World Junior Championships in early July in Uzbekistan and the World Senior Championships in November in Turkmenistan – which is an Olympic qualification event.
Cikamatana says she stands in solidarity with her lifters from Levuka against the decision of Atma Maharaj and a few of his Executive Board members of Weightlifting Fiji to remove Vueti from the position of National Coach.
Commonwealth Games lone gold medalist and weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana with former coach Joeli Vueti
Meanwhile Weightlifting Fiji says that they have appointed Hossein Tavakoli from Iran to be the new National Head
Coach under the program of hiring International Coaches with funding provided by the Fiji Government through the Fiji National Sports Commission.
Hossein was a Olympic Gold Medalist in 2000, as well a successful National Coach for Iran and Oman.
Weightlifting Fiji President, Atma Maharaj says that he will not be making any substantive comment for now until he sees Cikamatana’s letter.
Maharaj adds that he is working on a response on the letter he had received earlier from the other weightlifters from Levuka.
Cikamatana called Fijivillage from New Caledonia to raise her concern and says that there was no consultation done on this change.
She says that she will be returning to Fiji next week to discuss her future with her parents and her coach Joe Vueti.
She believes that there is no point to continue with the sport under the present set up.
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