Ashley wins bronze at Commonwealth championships
Ashley Kolomoisky, 18, won bronze for Australia at the 2024 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Suva.
Just a month after earning silver in the open women’s 59kg bodyweight division at the Australian Senior Weightlifting Championships in Sydney, Jewish Melburnian Ashley Kolomoisky has gone from strength to strength, by winning bronze for Australia at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Suva, Fiji.
The recently-turned 18-year-old, in her final year of high school, was the youngest of five entrants competing on September 18 in the championships’ junior women’s (U21) 59kg competition.
She not only confidently made six out of six successful lift attempts, but achieved new PBs and Victorian junior women’s records in the snatch (77kg), the clean & jerk (98kg) and combined total (175kg) to place third.
Welsh 20-year-old Charlotte Whalley was runner-up with a total of 176kg and India’s Balo Yalam, also 20, won gold with a total of 181kg.
And in a total open women’s 59kg field of 12 that competed in Suva – featuring youth, junior and senior competitors aged between 15 and 30 – Kolomoisky earned the fifth-highest combined total score.
Kolomoisky said it’s always special to be able to represent Australia, win a medal and achieve her set goals.
“This is my fourth international competition and I felt really good out there,” she told The AJN on Tuesday morning upon returning home.
“I had set myself goals of setting a new PB combined total of 175kg and to earn a podium spot and I was able to do both.”
She added that the key to those achievements in the pressure situation of a Commonwealth championship was to know that she had prepared well and to follow the advice of her coach at Melbourne West Barbell Club, Caity Haniver.
“The hard work put into training paid off and what also really helped me during the competition was trusting in my coach’s advice and that she had set the right goals for me.
“I believed in that and I’m really happy with how it went.
“My plan now for the year ahead is to try to qualify for the 2025 IWF Junior World Championships.”
comments