Solomon Islands at The 2008 Summer Olympics - Weightlifting

Weightlifting

Wendy Hale represented the Solomon Islands at the Beijing Olympics, participating in the women's lightweight division of weightlifting which encompasses athletes who weigh under 58 kilograms. Born on Malaita, the most populous of the Solomon Islands, Hale was 20 years old when she participated at the 2008 Olympics. She had not previously competed in any Olympic games. During the course of the event, which took place on 11 August, Hale faced eleven other athletes. She was the only athlete in the event from the entire region of Oceania.

During the snatch phase of the event, Hale was given three attempts to lift as much weight as she could in snatches. She successfully lifted 74 kilograms on her first attempt and 78 kilograms on her second, but failed to lift 82 kilograms on her third and final try. The second and last part of the event included lifting weights using the clean and jerk method. Hale successfully lifted 95 kilograms in this manner on her first attempt, but failed to lift 100 kilograms on her second and third tries. Her combined score was 173 kilograms. This placed the Solomon Islander at twelfth place of the twelve athletes in the event, directly behind the Philippines' eleventh-place finalist Hidilyn Diaz (192 kilograms), who in turn ranked behind Poland's tenth-place finalist Marieta Gotfryd (200 kilograms). The gold medalist in the event was China's Chen Yanqing, who set an Olympic record with 244 kilograms.