Charisma aiming to turn silver into Olympic gold

The final countdown has begun for Narangba resident Charisma Amoe-Tarrant who will make her Olympic debut on Monday.

The 22-year-old is going for gold in the Women’s +87kg Group A at Tokyo, the competition starting at 8.50pm (AEST) on Monday (August 2).

It comes three years after Amoe-Tarrant won a silver medal for Nauru, at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Though born in Naura, she has lived in Australia since the age of 13 and decided to compete in the green and gold after that silver medal on the Gold Coast.

State crown

Amoe-Tarrant, who trains at the Cougars Weightlifting Club in Chandler, was selected for the Australian team at the 2019 Pacific Games and won a bronze medal in the F87kg class.

There followed an eight-month break due to the COVID lockdown last year but returned for the Queensland Senior Championships and made every lift to win the +87kg title.

Amoe-Tarrant had a total lift of 257kgs and won the category by 100kgs with her best results across both snatch, clean and jerk and the total weights.

Silver lining

The Tokyo Olympics will be a far cry from the day, when aged just 11, that Amoe-Tarrant stated weightlifting. She was, at that time, a discus and shot put athlete.

But the love of weightlifting was growing and Amoe-Tarrant represented Naura at the 2018 Commonwealth Games finishing fourth in Women’s 90kg class.

However, she completed all three clean and jerk lifts, with a best of 142kg for a 243kg total and the silver medal.

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