Teen weightlifting star wins Samoa's first Games gold

47 mins ago
Seine Stowers of Samoa

Weightlifting teenage sensation Seine Stowers has broken multiple Commonwealth Games records to win Samoa's first gold medal in Glasgow.

The 18-year-old lifted a record total of 237kg - a record 106kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean-and-jerk - to take out the title in the women's 77kg event.

Stowers' triumph comes after teammate John Tafi claimed silver in the men's 71kg category for Samoa's first medal in Glasgow.

She continues her family's rich weightlifting history at the Games after emulating her older sister Feagaiga Stowers.

The older Stowers won gold in the women's +90kg event at the 2018 Gold Coast Games before winning silver at the 2022 Birmingham Games.

"I know she's proud of me," Stowers told AAP.

"At her first Commonwealth, she won the medal and she told me this is my first Commonwealth Games.

"Her wish was for me to win the medal, and now I've won the medal, so she's going to be very excited.

"My mum is here too, and she was crying, because I'm too young, but I won the medal."

Stowers was the clear frontrunner in the women's final at the Armadillo, with England's Isabella Brown taking silver with a total lift of 229kg.

Brown set a clean-and-jerk Games record of 132kg to go with her 97kg snatch lift.

Wales weightlifter Laura Hughes claimed bronze after lifting 224kg - 95kg in the snatch and 129kg in the clean-and-jerk.

Australia's Isabella Andueza was one of four in the 10-strong field to fail to post a result after struggling to lift 89kg in the snatch.

Stowers said she knew she was on target to claim the gold medal after announcing herself to her international rivals by winning three titles at last year's Australian championships in Melbourne.

"I knew I was going to win the medal," Stowers said in Glasgow.

"I believed in myself, I trusted in myself, because my whole family, and my country, and the Samoan team, they are supporting me.

"The people, they were all looking at me like they were waiting for me to win the medal."

Stowers' compatriot Tafi lifted a total of 314kg - 142kg in the snatch and a Games record 172kg in the clean-and-jerk - to finish runner-up to Nigeria's Edidiong Umoafia.

Fellow teenage sensation Femily-Crystie Notte was also on the podium in Glasgow, with the 17-year-old winning bronze for Nauru in the women's 63kg event.

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