Paul Coffa

IWF honours weightlifting coach, administrator Paul Coffa

Coffa was inducted at a Special Congress of the International Weightlifting Federation held in Bogota Colombia this week.

He is the first person ever to be inducted to the IWF Hall of Fame for outstanding achievement in the field of coaching and his record is truly remarkable.

In a career spanning 57 years, Paul Coffa has

Oceania Weightlifting Institute on the move

Paul Coffa established the regional centre in Fiji in 2002 before moving it to Samoa and eventually to New Caledonia, where he has trained Pacific, Oceania and Commonwealth champions for the past 12 years.

The veteran coach was working with 14 lifters in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics before the coronavirus brought everything to a sudden halt.

"In January and February of this year it all started and by April every country wanted their athletes and their citizens back home and that was the end of the institute, we had to close it," he said.