Charisma Amoe-Tarrant, Australia’s strongest woman, says her super-heavyweight weightlifting medal can be celebrated by both her country of choice and of her birth, Nauru, after winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games.

The Tokyo Olympian, who won silver for the small Pacific Island nation at the Gold Coast four years ago, finished third in a dramatic session at Birmingham’s NEC, behind England’s flag-bearer Emily Campbell, who hoisted a Games record 286kg to win.

An emotional Amoe-Tarrant looked skyward after the lift that catapulted her from the also-rans and onto the podium, signalling towards the heavens in memory of her late mother, whose death when she was 12 prompted her family’s relocation to Australia, and a close uncle who recently died.

“I couldn’t help looking up to both up there. All the lifts were for them,” she said afterwards.

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