WEIGHTLIFTING: Australia’s Erika Ropati-Frost has won a gold and Seen Lee a silver at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Penang, Malaysia.
 
Ropati-Frost, who won bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, blitzed the field in the women’s 58kg division, finishing 20 kilograms ahead of her nearest rival, Malaysia’s Marlyne Marceeta.
 
Her main rival for the gold, Welshwoman Christie Williams, was unsuccessful at her three lifts in the snatch and bowed out of the competition.
 
It’s a welcome return to form for 29-year-old Ropati-Frost, who missed qualification for Rio after battling through injury.
 
Veteran Seen Lee has shown she will be a strong medal prospect at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, finishing second behind South Africa’s Mona Pretorius in the women’s 63kg division.
 
Lee was leading the field after the snatch section, successfully lifting 86kg to Pretorius’s 84, but finished the clean and jerk with 102kg for a 188kg total.
 
Pretorius clean and jerked 110kg to finish with a 194kg total and the gold medal.
 
33-year-old Lee is hoping to compete at her fourth Commonwealth Games in 2018, and to add to the bronze medal she won in 2002 and the silver medal from 2010.

Ross Solly
Weightlifting Australia