Winning a gold medal at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships is an exceptional achievement, but one gold medal wasn't enough for local powerlifter Rawinia Luka.

Rawinia cleaned up in her weight division for the junior women's category of powerlifting after competing in the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Auckland held in November and early December this year.

She won not one –but four gold medals –leaving none for her competitors.

'I gold medalled in all three lifts and then the overall total so I took out squat, bench and deadlift,” says the 22-year-old athlete.

'It was just amazing to even be considered for the national team ….that was a high point for me in my life and then taking away the golds – I can't really describe the feeling that it gave me.”

Rawinia has only been competing in powerlifting for two years and found her love for the sport by accident.

While training for rugby with weights, Rawinia realised powerlifting is an official sport and started to try it out after watching some YouTube videos.

'I got a little bit more confident and was like: ‘I may as well just enter a competition just for the hell of it' and then I came away with a win and thought: ‘I'm pretty good too!'”.

Not only does Rawinia enjoy the sport as something she has a natural talent for – she also finds powerlifting supports her wellbeing.

'It's kind of like my mental health defence mechanism I guess. It really helps with my mental health right now.

'I'm challenging myself all the time but most of it's just like the environment –people are they're just like cheering you on and they don't even know you.”

At the Commonwealth Games Rawinia lifted an impressive 190kg in squat, 100kg in bench and 190kg in deadlift.

Rawinia with her four gold medals from the championships. Photo: Formidable Films.

She says having the competition edge gives her a spark with her lifts.

'I actually perform better having good competition against me because it pushes me.”

When she wasn't collecting gold medals, Rawinia volunteered with spotting for other competitors powerlifting at the Commonwealth Games.

'I was helping spot guys that were equipped lifting like 300kg plus…I was scared for myself, I was scared for them and I was like: ‘Please don't drop it!',” says Rawinia with a laugh.

Next on Rawinia's radar is the junior powerlifting world championships held in Romania, August 2023.

'I've already looked up the world records and I'm going to be gunning for those to be my openers– it's going to be me –I'm going to be hitting some world records when I get there.”

She's looking to smash her own personal records too.

Rawinia getting in the zone to complete her deadlift at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships. Photo: Formidable Films.

'My squat is at 190kg at the moment which is good but not good enough for myself …if I go hard this year I'll get at least 260-270kg –that's what I'm gunning for.”

This means hard work for Rawinia from now on.

'I'm just going to do the mahi in the gym.

'If I want to be a world champ I'm going to be training – no excuses.”