Ten years ago, Gisborne boy Kitini Taihuka took up CrossFit where his passion for the sport’s lifting components quickly drew him to what he now loves the most — weightlifting.
Taihuka, 20, these days lives on the Sunshine Coast with partner Tiana Teneti and their two children.
He returned to New Zealand last month for the North Island Weightlifting Championships in Hastings.
“It was good to be back with the crew,” he said. “Training by myself gets me a bit mentally, so being back home is a bit of a mental refresh.”
Taihuka clinched first place at the North Island champs in the junior and senior 109-kilogram categories.
During a competition, athletes have six attempts to lift their heaviest possible weights — three lifts in the snatch discipline and three in the clean and jerk.
Taihuka managed 129kg in the snatch and 169kg in the clean and jerk for a 298kg total.
Former Gisborne Boys’ High student Taihuka is coached by Tina Ball — the New Zealand Commonwealth and Olympic weightlifting coach, founder and director of Strength HQ and Olympic Weightlifting Auckland president.
“She’s just the best, she’s always in our corner,” he said. “She pushes you in every way — mentally and physically — but she also helps you physically and mentally.”
Ball is the only female coach in the Oceania region to have coached a male Commonwealth Games gold medallist — David Liti in 2018.
She met Taihuka after he qualified for the Oceania championships in 2018 at his first-ever weightlifting competition.
Taihuka broke four Oceania records at his first international competition and was named New Zealand’s top male under-15 weightlifter.
He holds New Zealand youth records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and overall total.
Ball sees a tonne of promise in Taihuka but knows about the struggles of pursuing a career in weightlifting.
“I see Kitini with the potential and the ability to go a long way (but) like a lot of athletes, it’s the factors around them that make it even more challenging.
“For instance, he’s got a young family. A lot of lifters have to work. There’s no funding in our sport and you have to fundraise on top of it.”
Taihuka’s whānau in Gisborne fundraised for him to return to New Zealand for the North Island championships.
Kitini was this week named in a New Zealand squad to compete at the Oceania Junior, Youth and U23 Championships in Apia, Samoa, in October.
He then returns to New Zealand with Ball to compete at the New Zealand nationals in Hamilton.
“From what I know of weightlifting he’s got the goods to get there,” Ball said.
“It’s overcoming all of these other little roadblocks along the way that will be the most challenging.”