I want to be number one in the world - Eileen Cikamatana

“I want to be number one in the world.”

Those were the words of teenage weightlifting sensation Eileen Cikamatana after winning four gold medals, two of them at senior level, at the Commonwealth and Oceania Championships in Australia.

Speaking to Fijivillage from the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Noumea, the 17-year-old from Taviya village in Ovalau says she aims to be ranked number one in the world before she retires from the sport.

Cikamatana says she started after her Year 8 teacher introduced the sport to the class through the ‘Oceania Talent Identification Programme’ in 2014, which caught her interest of developing and growing in the sport.

She says she struggled when she started in the sport.

Eileen set four new Senior and Junior records in the Clean and Jerk lift in the 90kg class for both the Commonwealth and Oceania and aims to make a big impact at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

She is currently ranked number one in the Commonwealth Senior and Junior Division and ranked number two in the World Juniors and will be joining Team Fiji at the 5th Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan.