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COMMONWEALTH GAMES - PINI WINS GOLD FOR PACIFIC |
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By Tuifa’asisina Peter Rees |
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The twelve Pacific Island
nations that competed at the March Commonwealth Games in Melbourne,
Australia collectively emerged with a total of six medals with Papua
New Guinea swimmer Ryan Pini winning the only gold medal.
Pini provided one of the golden moments of the games when he upset
Australia's Olympic champion Michael Klim to win the Men's gold in
the 100m butterfly event with a new record time of 52.64 seconds.
Pini’s amazing swim made him an instant national hero back in PNG.
It was only his country's second ever gold medal since 1990, and
first ever medal in swimming.
It was a remarkable result no one predicted given the sport’s low
profile in the Pacific. Pini backed up his gold medal with an
impressive sixth place finish in the 50m butterfly. He lives and
trains in Queensland because of the lack of quality facilities in
his hometown of Port Moresby.
Despite Pini's heroics, the overall performance by the island
nations was mildly disappointing compared to Manchester four years
ago when the Pacific nations hauled in a record 21 medals, three of
them gold.
Expectations were high with at least two Pacific Island
weightlifters rated as guaranteed gold medal prospects for
Melbourne. Fiji was also favourites to win gold in the rugby sevens
being the form team of the current IRB World Sevens Series.
But like any sport, past results do not count if an athlete or team
cannot produce the form on the day. In sport anything can happen.
And it did with Papua New Guinea's Dika Toua and Nauru's Yukio
Peter, both world class lifters ranked inside the top ten
internationally. With the Commonwealth Games being a level below in
standard from the Olympics, their form heading into the games made
them undoubted favourites over their opponents.
But disaster struck the highly touted Pacific duo.
Dika Toua slipped and injured her leg while attempting 108kg in the
clean and jerk category. It was a weight she has done before many
times and if it had come |
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off as was expected she
would have won gold. But the injury harmed her chances. She was
close to pulling out but had the strength to continue and finish
with a silver medal in the women's 53kg category - a gutsy but
disappointing end for her.
They say lightning does not strike twice in the same place. But it
did soon after with far worse consequences.
Yukio Peter bombed out in the men's 77kg division failing to record
a lift. It was a mysterious performance that left Oceania officials
scratching their heads. It was a similar performance to New
Zealand's Beatrice Faumuina who was expected to easily win gold in
the women's discus in Melbourne, but failed to bring out her best.
But there was saving grace for the weightlifters with Nauru's Sheba
Deireregea (women's 75kg) and Itte Detenamo (men's 105kg+) winning
silver and bronze respectively.
Luck was also not on Fiji’s side as New Zealand again triumphed to
win their third consecutive gold medal since rugby sevens was
introduced in 1998. New Zealand, led by Samoan captain Tafai Ioasa,
beat England in the final 29-21.
England had earlier beaten Fiji in the semis 14-21. But the Waisale
Serevi led team bounced back to capture the bronze medal beating a
star studded Australian team for third place 24-17.
The only other medal was won by Samoan boxer Warren Fuiava who
captured bronze in the Middleweight (75kg) category beating Papua
New Guinea's John Koroke and Eamon O'Kane of Northern Ireland before
meeting his match in the semis against Canadian Adonis Stevenson.
To put the level of competitiveness into perspective; New Zealand
supported by millions in government funding and sponsorship only
managed six gold medals, 31 overall. It was a disappointing games
for them as well as they won 11 golds in 2002 and were expected to
do a lot better.
Among New Zealand's gold medal winners was Tongan Valerie Vili (nee
Adams) who easily won the women's shot put, setting a new
Commonwealth record in the process. At just 20 years of age, Vili is
already rated a gold medal prospect for the 2008 Olympics.
Australia was the top overall country at the Melbourne games, the
hosts producing a massive medal haul of 221 medals including a
whopping 84 gold medals. Their nearest rival was England trailing
way back with just 110 medals, 36 of them gold.
FINAL
MEDAL TALLY - PACIFIC NATIONS - 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES:
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COUNTRY |
GOLD |
SILVER |
BRONZE |
TOTAL |
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Papua
New Guinea |
1 |
1 |
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2 |
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Nauru |
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1 |
1 |
2 |
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Fiji |
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1 |
1 |
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Samoa |
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1 |
1 |
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Australia |
84 |
69 |
68 |
221 |
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New
Zealand |
6 |
12 |
13 |
31 |
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Copyright Event Polynesia Ltd.
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