Hayley Whiting was back among the medals, this time at the Pacific Mini Games. Photo supplied.Weightlifter Hayley Whiting has picked up another medal as she continues her journey towards the top of the game.

Whiting picked up a silver medal at the Pacific Mini Games earlier in the month, a result she said she was extremely pleased with.

“Looking at the level of the opposition it was the best I could do so I am really happy,” she said.

“The girl who won it was a lot better than me.

“With weightlifting every entrant has to give an entry weight for what they can lift and they are generally pretty honest so I knew that she was going to be better.”

Whiting lifted 78kg in the snatch, three below her competition best, while she was able to improve her best in clean and jerk to 98kg. The games were held in Vanuatu, with a local school serving as a makeshift village for the competitors.

“It was really interesting and beautiful as all the Pacific islands are,” she said.

“The village was a school and our accommodation was a classroom where they had taken all the desks and seats out and replaced them with bunk beds, so that was interesting.”

With Christmas and the New Year just around the corner, Whiting said competitions will die down for a while, but training will not, with her focus on preparing for plenty of competitions.

“With it being a Commonwealth Games year it is going to be very busy,” she said.

“Unfortunately I won’t be part of the New Zealand team for the Games but hopefully I can be selected for the Oceania Games.”

Whiting said selection for that competition will come down to how many competitors New Zealand elects to take.

“I would need to improve by a couple of kilos by then which I am confident I would be able to do,” she said.

“It might seem easy but actually making the gains up on the platform in competition can be quite challenging.

“Early on it can be easy to make kilo improvements at a time but later on it can be more difficult.”

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay© The Ashburton Guardian - 21 December 2017