‘CNMI will be well represented in weightlifting’

CNMI Weightlifting Federation president John Davis, right, joins women’s 81-kg gold medalist Raegine A. Camacho, second from left, Latte Built Center owner Derek Cutting, right, and silver medalist Danica C. Guevarra during the awards ceremony of the 2020 Northern Marianas Cup Weightlifting Tournament at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.
(MARK RABAGO)

CNMI Weightlifting president John Davis is not one to make predictions on how many medals the CNMI National Weightlifting Team will win in the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022.

However, the former Marianas High School vice principal assured that everyone in the team will do their best to make their home islands proud, especially since the quadrennial event will be held for the first time in the CNMI.

“Culturally and traditionally Olympic weightlifting isn’t one of the primary sports in the CNMI. We have a young and inexperienced team. Yet, we have won medals at every contest we have entered since 2017. I’m not going to make any predictions concerning our efforts except to say the CNMI will be well represented at the Games,” he said.

Last week, CNMI Weightlifting named the men’s and women’s teams to the Mini Games. The men’s team is composed of Raymond Santos (55 kg), Leowell Cristobal (67 kg), Joshua Meneses (73 kg), Joseph “Joey” Tudela (81 kg), Emmanuel Aquino (81 kg), Leonardo “Leo” Apelo (89 kg), Angel San Nicolas (96 kg), David Barnhouse (102 kg), Joey Colisao (109 kg), and Jason Limes (109+ kg). The women’s team is made up of Pipit Ball (64 kg), Cheyanne Manuel (71 kg), Antonette Labausa (76 kg), Riella Ichiuo (81 kg), and Raegine Camacho (87 kg).

Barnhouse and Labausa will serve as playing coaches for the men’s and women’s teams, respectively.

Davis said it took a lot of time and effort for the federation and the coaches to select the 15 men and women that eventually made up the national team for the Mini Games.

“We used a number of factors in athlete selection, primarily the national coaches’ recommendation, then the board of directors approved the selection based on training, federation membership, participation, ADAMS registration, and other factors.”

ADAMS is the acronym for Anti-Doping Administration & Management System.

The CNMI Weightlifting president added that their athletes continue to train hard sans an actual facility to prepare for the Mini Games.

“Though we don’t have a permanent home, the national team members continue to train hard, Currently, the team is training in the Pacific Mini Games warehouse until the arrival of equipment needed for the Games,” he said.

A total of 187 athletes are expected to compete in weightlifting, second-most in the Mini Games behind outrigger canoe or va’a.

Aside from the CNMI, the other nations that will send athletes for the sport are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis & Futuna.
Australia and New Zealand may also send their baseball teams to the quadrennial event, but as of January 2022, both have yet to submit their numeral entries to the Mini Games.