Weightlifting: Baker overcomes the awe factor

By CHRIS BARCLAY in MANCHESTER

When Olivia Baker became New Zealand's first woman Olympic weightlifter at Sydney two years ago, she found herself among the sort of esteemed company that had the awestruck Wellingtonian collecting autographs after the medals were dished out.

Baker again becomes a trendsetter when female weightlifting makes its debut at the Games on Tuesday, but as one of the big names in a smallish six-member field, she will not be seeking any signatures this time.

She is expected to challenge strongly for a gold medal in the women's 75kg-and-over category, and her closest challengers are likely to come from close to home.

Australian Caroline Pileggi shaded her at the Oceania championships in April, and Baker's flatmate, Keisha-Dean Soffe, could also threaten if more highly-ranked lifters have a bad day at the Manchester International Convention Centre.

Baker's continuing battle with an arthritic shoulder will also have a bearing on whether she can complete a performance trifecta comprising a personal best, qualification for November's world championships in Poland - she needs to record 225kg - and, naturally, a gold medal.

The shoulder has defied effective medical remedies for more than three years, meaning Baker has had to carefully manage her training routine to minimise discomfort.

When the shoulder flares up - usually when training in her chilly home climate - her snatch technique suffers. However, a cortisone injection before she left Wellington last weekend should see her through her Games campaign.

Baker sets targets at each meeting, and to protect her shoulder, adopted a low-key approach at the Oceania champs in Fiji.

"Four weeks before, I said I'm going to total 220kg there and I'm not going to push myself any further and risk the shoulder," she said.

Baker duly achieved that target and pulled out, content to fill a minor placing.

So little can be read into the result in Fiji, said coach Garry Marshall, who would be disappointed if Baker did not improve on her combined snatch-clean and jerk personal best of 235kg, recorded as she finished eighth at the Olympics.

"We decided just to peak once in 18 months, and that's here next week," Marshall said.

Baker said she expected a close tussle with Pileggi, the No 1 ranked Commonwealth lifter, who has a personal best of 232.5kg.

The pair have been adversaries for eight years, although Pileggi has only "recently caught up" when she moved up a weight class two years ago from the up-to-105kg category.

Baker said the Sydney experience helped to tune her to top-class competition, but the more relaxed nature of the Commonwealth Games posed a different challenge.

"It sort of feels the same, but it's a little bit more laidback,' she said.

"In other ways it will be a lot harder because there's expectations of a medal."

Since arriving in Manchester on Monday, Marshall has gently eased his lifters into their work as they recover from the effects of 36 hours of travel from home.

Only men's 62kg class competitor Terry Hughes was spared the marathon journey, having spent the last five weeks training in Germany.

Baker, men's 105kg-and-over favourite Nigel Avery, Soffe and Grant Cavit (85kg class) will up their workload at the weekend.

Avery, who won two bronze medals at Kuala Lumpur four years ago, should not be troubled in his division, considering he boasts a personal best of 400kg - 10kg superior to his nearest rivals, Corran Hocking and Chris Rae, of Australia.

- NZPA

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