Commonwealth weightlifting gold medalist dies of COVID aged 40 | Inquirer Sports

Commonwealth weightlifting gold medalist dies of COVID aged 40

/ 03:52 PM July 07, 2022

Nauru's Reanna Maricha Solomon

FILE–Nauru’s Reanna Maricha Solomon.  AFP PHOTO / FAYEZ NURELDINE 

A Commonwealth Games weightlifting champion and Olympian has become the first COVID-related death in the tiny Pacific island republic of Nauru, the world’s second smallest nation.

“Reanna Solomon, only 40 years of age, lost her life as a result of the COVID-19 virus,” the Oceania Weightlifting Federation said in a statement Thursday.

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President Lionel Aingimea had previously announced the death without disclosing the name, saying the first person to die with COVID in Nauru had passed away on July 1.

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Solomon won two gold medals in the super-heavyweight division at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and placed 10th at the Athens Olympics two years later.

“Apart from being a great athlete, Reanna was a devoted mother and wife and has sadly left behind her husband Tavita and their five children,” Paul Coffa, the general secretary of the Commonwealth Weightlifting Federation, said.

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“Reanna was a superb athlete, naturally strong, who started competing in weightlifting in the 1990s.”

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Nauru, with a population of fewer than 11,000, has more than 4,100 active COVID cases.

To curb the spread of the disease, the government has introduced on-the-spot fines of up to $6,800 for people walking around for non-essential reasons, not wearing a mask, and for gatherings of more than three people.

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