Mele’ana Ofiu has only been wrestling for 18 months, but is already progressing through the sport. Photo: Supplied.
Warrawong High schoolgirl and wrestler Mele’ana Ofiu is set to pin down the competition for Australia during the 2024 Southeast Asian and Oceania Wrestling Tournament in Thailand this September.
With few females in the sport in Australia, the 15-year-old found herself with no-one to compete against at the 2024 National Wrestling Championships in June in her Under 17 Women’s Freestyle 73 kg category.
Mele’ana said that as a result, it had led her to a spot in the international competition for the same category in Thailand.
“How it works is, I’m in my weight division, so the 73 kilos,” she said.
“If somebody shows up, then we wrestle and have a match, but if nobody shows up and it’s just me in that weight division, then I get an automatic win.
“But they do set up specials, which is a match with somebody who’s in a similar weight to you.
“It doesn’t actually contribute to whether you get the medal or not, but it’s just so that you have a match.”
Regardless, it has given Mele’ana, who is proud of her Tongan, Maori and Australian roots, a spot in the Southeast Asian and Oceania Wrestling Tournament from 25-29 September in Thailand, where she’s hoping to do well.
“I’ve been training really hard, so I’m hoping I’ll win,” she said.
“I go to my PCYC to train with my coach twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but outside of that I do my own training and try for twice a day, but I don’t always get that.”
Having only joined the sport 18 months ago and now trained by Dan Brown, she admitted with so few females in the sport it was often hard to find someone to actually wrestle against.
“There’s very few female wrestlers in Australia. It’s a challenge to actually find someone to wrestle,” she said.
“My training is against the boys, but competition is always women versus women.”
Despite the lack of competition, it’s a sport she’s long wanted to compete in.
“I always wanted to do wrestling and when we moved here [from Queensland] there was a place where I could do my training at the Lake Illawarra PCYC, so I thought I’d give it a go,” she said.
“Then I began to like it and I’ve gotten pretty good.”
Beyond Thailand, she will compete in the national junior championships in Perth in October.
And from there, she has set some big goals.
“Possibly I’d like to go to the Olympics,” she said.
“It wasn’t my initial goal when I started out wrestling, but I’ve only considered it now after being given the opportunity to go to Southeast Asian and Oceania, but I’d like to shoot for the Olympics.”
To get to Thailand, she has been fundraising through school and putting money towards it from her job.
Loading ...
