Nauru at the Commonwealth Games

Nauru  at the Commonwealth Games
: Flag of Nauru CGF Code = NRU
Commonwealth Games history
Commonwealth Games
1990 • 1994 • 1998 • 2002 • 2006 • 2010

Nauru has competed in five editions of the Commonwealth Games to date, beginning in 1990. This very small country, which had a population of just 9,872 at the time of the 2002 census^[1], succeeded in winning at least two medals on each occasion, including at least one gold at every edition of the Games except in 2006.

Nauru is renowned particularly for weightlifting; all its medals in the Commonwealth Games have been achieved in that field. Apart from runners Frederick Cannon in 1994 and Aneri Canon in 1998, Nauru has only ever sent weightlifters to the Games.

To date, three Nauruans -Reanna Solomon, Marcus Stephen and Yukio Peter- have won gold medals, and a total of eight Nauruans -Reanna Solomon, Marcus Stephen, Yukio Peter, Jalon Renos Doweiya, Ebonette Deigaeruk, Sheba Deireragea, Mary Diranga, and Itte Detenamo- have won medals.

Medal tally

				Total
Nauru	10	6	11	27

Nauru ranks nineteenth on the all-time medal tally of the Commonwealth Games.

History

For its first participation in the Commonwealth Games, in 1990, Nauru sent only one representative, Marcus Stephen, who competed in only three events, all of them in weightlifting. He created a surprise by winning a medal in each of those events, including gold in the Men's 60 kg Snatch.

Stephen competed again in 1994, along with weightlifter Gerard Jones and runner Frederick Cannon. Stephen won his country's only medals - three gold. In 1998, Nauru sent six weightlifters and a runner to the Games, and Stephen again won his country's only medals - again, three gold.

In 2002, Nauru sent a team consisting solely in weightlifters, including the first Nauruan women to represent their country at the Games. For the first time, Stephen failed to win a gold medal, but obtained three silver. Nauru won fifteen medals, ten of which were won by women, including two gold by Reanna Solomon. Six Nauruan weightlifters, an astonishing proportion of the country's population, won medals at the 2002 Games.

In 2006, Stephen did not compete. Nauru failed to win a gold medal for the first time, but weightlifters Sheba Deireragea and Itte Detenamo obtained a silver and a bronze respectively.

In 2007, Marcus Stephen, Nauru's most successful sportsman, became President of the Republic of Nauru. In 2008, he became President of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation.^[2]

At the 2010 Games in New Delhi, India, Yukio Peter won Nauru's first gold medal winning the 77kg division in weightlifting with a new Games record of 333kg.^[3] It was the country's tenth gold medal in their history.^[3]

Source

• Official results

References

1. ^ 2002 Nauru population census
2. ^ "Nauru president to head weightlifting body", ABC Radio Australia, March 30, 2008
3. ^ ^{a b} Peter wins gold for Nauru Nine. Retrieved 07 October 2010.