LATE WEIGHTLIFTER HONOURED
WIFE OF LATE WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPION TELLS OF HER HUSBAND’S PASSION TO DO MORE FOR THE SPORT IN FIJI
The late Quake Raddock was inducted into the 2019 Fiji Sports Hall of Fame on Friday night.
His wife Susan Raddock received the award during the ceremony, hosted annually by the Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee, at the South Sea Orchids in Nasau, Nadi on Friday night.
He was a unique but very humble man who represented Fiji with distinction in athletics and weightlifting. Quake took up the sport to counter asthma that he suffered from a young age.
“He would have been the proudest man on earth if he was alive,” Susan said,
ACHIEVEMENTS
He represented Fiji in athletics in the events of shot put and discus. Notable achievements are: 1973 Oceania Athletics Championships, Australia- bronze medal;
1976- Oceania Championships, New Caledonia: bronze medal shot put (12.81m) and discus (39.16m); 1996 - Oceania Championship, Samoa: bronze medal.
“He wanted to put more in the sport of weightlifting, that was his life.
“He was always adamant that you have strength and speed and weightlifting can work with all other sports like track and field.” Quake then became a champion weightlifter with a fierce competitive nature that brought him fame and glory to Fiji winning gold at two consecutive South Pacific Games. He shattered Fiji and the Games record in the process in the 110kg category. 1979 – South Pacific Games, Suva gold, total lift 260kg;
1983 – Pacific Games, Apia, gold medal- total lift 300kg;
After retiring from competition, Quake became Fiji’s national weightlifting coach, taking athletes to the Atlanta Olympics (1996) and Sydney (2000) Olympic Games as well as to the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the 1999 SPG in Guam. He coached many lifters to the Commonwealth Games, Oceania and South Pacific Junior Weightlifting Championships.
He was elected a vice-president of Oceania Weightlifting Federation (OWF) in 2000, a position he held until his sad and untimely death in 2004.
OWF general secretary Paul Coffa once said, “As a coach he was most successful, he produced a lot of great athletes and a lot of top lifters.
“He assisted a lot of athletes in different sports with weight training and also rugby too, and he was a Fijian through and through.”