Laurel Hubbard wins gold at Pacific Games after losing name supression battle

Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has won gold at the Pacific Games in Samoa, a day after her failed bid to keep her name suppressed over a driving charge went public.

Hubbard, a transgender athlete who is trying to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, won gold medals at Apia's Faleata Sports Complex to become the Oceania senior champion, the Commonwealth senior champion, and the Pacific Games senior champion.

The 41-year-old won with a total lift of 268kg in the women's 87kg category on Saturday. Samoans Feagaiga Stowers and Iuniana Sipaia took home silver and bronze with respective lifts of 261kg and 255kg.

Lifting for gold comes after revelations that Hubbard was charged with careless driving causing injury after her vehicle fishtailed on a sharp bend near Queenstown on October 24, 2018.

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Her car hit a vehicle carrying an Australian couple in their 60s. The male driver spent nearly two weeks in Dunedin Hospital and needed major spinal surgery on returning to Australia.

Hubbard, who is the daughter of cereal magnate Dick Hubbard, pleaded guilty in January this year and offered to pay the couple about $13,000, including $1000 for emotional harm. 

The case could not be reported because Hubbard, represented by lawyer Fiona Guy Kidd QC, successfully applied for suppression orders at each of the five stages of the court process. The High Court in Invercargill this week overturned the suppression orders after an appeal by Stuff.

After suffering a potentially career-ending injury at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Hubbard returned to competition at the Arafura Games in Darwin in April, though she failed to register a lift.

To qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, she must compete in six international events in 18 months. The competitions in Darwin and Apia took her to two.

Hubbard contemplated retirement following a horrific elbow injury sustained on the Gold Coast last April.

While trying for a Commonwealth record 132kg in the snatch in the women's 91kg-plus competition, Hubbard's injury occurred when the bar fell awkwardly behind her and she reeled in pain clutching her left elbow, ending her dream of winning Commonwealth Games gold.

It was later confirmed she had completely ruptured a ligament in her arm, but she has since recovered and is targeting a place in New Zealand's Olympics team in 2020.

She represented New Zealand as Gavin Hubbard before she transitioned in her mid-30s.