Competing in Group B amongst four other Weightlifters, Baru began the Snatch round lifting 113kgs in his first attempt. He attempted 118kgs in his second which was unsuccessful. He redeemed himself in his third attempt to record 118kgs for his Snatch.

He began positively in the Clean & Jerk round lifting 147kgs however; he was unable to continue in his second and third attempts, as he was unsuccessful in lifting 153kgs to settle with 147kgs. That confirmed a total of 265kgs.

Baru is a second time Olympian and was awarded an Olympic Diploma for a top eight finish in the Rio 2016 Olympics. He came in sixth in Rio. However, he was unable to match that performance as he settled for tenth place after the completion of Group A.

He won gold at the 2019 Pacific Games and silver at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and is the current Oceania record holder for both Snatch and Clean and Jerk and the Commonwealth record holder for the Clean and Jerk in the Men’s 61kg category.

Baru qualified for the Olympics through the Oceania quota and was ranked in Group B of the 14 competitors. The field was very competitive including Chinese world record holder, Fabian Li in the Total and Snatch division and Indonesian Eko Yuli Irawan, the world record holder in Clean and Jerk.

China’s Fabian Li went on to win the Gold medal setting an Olympic record along the way in the Clean and Jerk and lifting a total of 313kgs. Indonesia’s Eko Yuli Irawan claimed Silver lifting 302kgs with Kazakhstan’s Igor Son settling for Bronze with a total life of 294kgs.