Pushing above his weight

Remember the name Nehemiah Elder. At just 15-years-old the Tunuloa in Cakaudrove lifter is already making his mark in the sport of weightlifting both locally and internationally. This bulky young man has had an impressive run so far with five international competitions to his name including the 2023 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in India, 2023 Oceania Youth, Junior & Under-23 Weightlifting Championship in Samoa, 2024 Oceania Championship in Auckland, the 2024 Oceania Elite International Invitation tournament and the 2024 Commonwealth Championship in Suva.

From these competitions, he won a silver medal in the senior category in India before impressing in Auckland with a new Oceania Youth record in the snatch clearing 125kg, levelled the Oceania Youth clean and jerk record of 137kg, set a new Oceania Youth total record of 262kg and won gold in the Youth snatch plus the Oceania Junior category. He also received the Best Male Youth Lifter title at the event. Elder did not stop there as he won two gold in the men’s junior and youth categories, silver in the senior category and set a new Commonwealth Youth record in the snatch clearing an impressive 141 kg in his first attempt in front of the home crowd during the Commonwealth Championship in Suva.



All it took was a little push from his father Henry Elder who is also the Weightlifting Fiji head coach, his belief in God, consistency in training and discipline to attain these accolades. “From when I was small my dad said that I had a lot of talent and that I could take up this sport as a career,” he said. “I did other sports too before this, I was switching sports constantly but then when I turned 13, I decided to take up weightlifting as a career path.

“Five months in I was told that I will be competing at the Commonwealth Championship in India, and I said okay I’ll take it up. We came out with that result and that motivated me even more to continue the sport.” The Year-10 student at Marist Brothers High School grew up around the sport and his father recognized his talent at an early age.

“I used to bring him to the gym when he was three-years-old, he would pick up a stick and copy the weightlifting exercises so everything that he did was pretty high standard for someone at that age. I saw his mechanics, he was natural in terms of his movement and by the time he was four, he was doing full body pullups,” coach Henry Elder shared. While their father and son bond strengthened through sports, coach Elder would seldom have to put on his parent hat to remind his athlete of the bigger picture.

“We try to keep him grounded all the time. We try to make him understand that at any given day anything can happen, and all this can come to an end, he needs to respect everybody and be humble. I remind him that he is the same as everybody else.

” Coach Elder’s presence alone in the sport is enough to keep Nehemiah grounded. “Its like mixed of emotions. Its scary because I don’t want to disappoint him, but I can’t lift without him.

He’s the only reason why I am in this sport, and I don’t think I’ll ever do weightlift without him. Even within training sessions, I find it hard to lift heavy without him. I basically can’t do this without it,” the young champion stated.

The two are working around a strategy to allow the former student of The Learning Centre to still thrive in the sport in the absence of his father and coach. “For me standing there and watch him stand on the platform is really hard. It’s a very emotional time as a coach and to have your son there its really challenging.

I try to take off my father hat and focus. There’s a lot of mixed emotions and we always have to refocus. “I have thought about a scenario where I have to sit back in one of these competitions because we never know what could happen, so we have to try and mimic such a situation where I won’t be there,” coach Elder shared.

The support from his fellow weightlifters is one that inches close to this bond. “A lifter that truly inspired me are my brothers Daniel Shaw and Jim and Taniela Rainibogi. They inspire me to lift and continue in this sport.

They are also part of the reason why I’m still here,” Nehemiah added. With maternal links to Udu Point in Macuatu, this promising young lifter highlighted the Commonwealth Championship in Fiji as his standout moment from 2024. “The one here in Fiji.

I really liked that one, it was my biggest achievement yet. I got a silver in the senior so that was a big achievement for me and all glory to God for that. It was a big thing to be lifting on my home soil, there was a lot of nerves, but we came out with a good result.

My brothers from school cheering me on was a good motivation, I was happy that they were all there.” From a young boy who was inspired by his cousin Percy Mitchell who used to do Bar Brothers pull-ups, an inspiring lifter who was in awe of Chinese and Olympian weightlifter Lü Xiaojun, Elder is now holding his own and has set targets for 2025. “I got the World Youth Championships coming up.

I hope I can come up with a good result, put Fiji’s name out there and I just want to glorify God with it all. “I just want to continue repping Fiji and put Fiji’s name out there and the sport of weightlifting out there.” He is ranked among the top 10 weightlifters in the world youth category.

Weightlifting Fiji representative, Nehemiah Elder during one his training sessions at the National Fitness Centre in Laucala Bay, Suva. Picture: KATA KOLI.