Kiana Elliott has made significant progress in the Paris 2024 rankings at the Oceania Weightlifting Championships held in Auckland, New Zealand.

The SASI athlete won the 59kg title for Australia, finishing ahead of her rankings rival Mattie Sasser.

Elliott and Sasser are both ranked in the top 20 and will go head-to-head in Phuket for a continental qualifying slot.

Sasser, who lifted for Marshall Islands at Rio 2016 and is back with her homeland after a spell competing for the United States, holds the advantage with a best total of 214kg.

Sasser snatched an Oceania record 98kg to lead by 1kg. Elliott turned the tables to win on 97kg for the snatch and 114kg for the clean and jerk, rounding out with a total of 211kg - an improvement of 3kg in the rankings.

She would have gone above Sasser if she had made her final attempt at 118kg.

“I’ve been told my performance is the second highest Sinclair ever for an Australian female weightlifter,” said Elliott, who lifted at the Tokyo Olympics.

“That’s a huge achievement for me and my coach Martin Harlowe after almost 11 years of investment in my weightlifting career.”

Recording personal bests and Australian records, Elliott was also awarded Best Overall Female lifter of the championships.

As the 26-year-old works towards qualifying for Paris, she is also aiming to leave a legacy for weightlifting in Australia.

“If I were to be successful I would absolutely love to go there (Paris) and be able to hold my own amongst those girls that have qualified; be amongst the competition and really try and compete with them,” Elliott said.

“I want to prove to Australians that we can be up there, with enough diligence, enough deliberate training and focus and motivation and vision – we can be a part of it.”