Jewish trio Oceania junior weightlifting titles
Three Jewish Australian teenage weightlifters won golds at the 2025 Oceania Youth and Junior Championships.
The future of Jewish weightlifting at the elite level in Australia reached new heights last month when, for the first time, three Jewish teens from Melbourne represented Australia at an international competition – the 2025 Oceania Youth and Junior Championships in Melbourne – and all won gold medals.
Layla Bloom – who competed in weightlifting’s debut at the Maccabiah Games in 2022, and will do so again this July, when she turns 20 – came first in the junior (U21) women’s 63kg bodyweight division, with a top snatch attempt lift of 75kg, and 104kg in the Clean & Jerk (CJ).
Her total of 179 earned her a new national junior women’s record and a gold medal, ahead of runner-up Milah Dinh (161) from Vanuatu, and Fiji’s Claris Turaganivalu (138).
Ashley Kolomoisky, who recently turned 19, also won Oceania gold, in the junior women’s 58kg bodyweight division, successfully defending her title that she won last year in Auckland, and setting three new Victorian records in her age and bodyweight categories.
Kolomoisky’s total of 173 (77kg snatch and 96kg CJ) was enough to edge runner-up and fellow Aussie Juliana Ghetto’s total of 171, while Samoa’s Anoni Taulua Faumui was third on 168, and Nauru’s Bless Harris fourth on 125.
She didn’t have too much time to celebrate though, as she commenced her preparations for the 2025 Junior World Championships in early May in Peru, in which she excelled, setting several new Australian records.
The youngest of the Jewish trio, and the youngest member of the Australian team at the Oceania Championships – 15-year-old Ellie Zalcman – made her Oceania and intertational debut in unforgettable fashion, earning a gold medal in the youth (U17) women’s 53kg bodyweight division.
Like Bloom and Kolomoisky, Zalcman previously competed in gymnastics at state and national championships, and pivoted into the sport of weightlifting, earning a spot in an extended Australian squad last year, when aged 14.
Coached by Ivan Katz, Zalcman came first with best attempted lifts of 57kg in the snatch, and 69kg in the CJ, for a total of 126, setting three new U15 girls’ Victorian and national records, and she was thrilled with that result.
Second and third places went to Papua New Guinea duo Lynne Rarua (115) and Ani Gavera (103), while Nauru’s River Herman was fourth (102).
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