Momentous night at swimming as spoils are shared
The sky had cleared, but instead the sound of fans cheering could be heard thundering outside Aquatic Centre Faleata on Thursday's third evening of swimming finals.
Cook Islands, Guam, and American Samoa all reached the podium for the first time at the Samoa 2019 XVI Pacific Games, adding to a number of captivating storylines that have developed over the first three days of competition.
Fans of all countries roared as Cook Islands’ Wesley Roberts swam his way to gold at the opening event of the evening, the 200m freestyle, in 1 minute 51.36 seconds. Roberts’ gold was also the first ever medal for the Cook Islands in swimming at the Pacific Games. Tahiti’s Rahiti De Vos took silver, and Thibaut Mary (NCL) claimed bronze.
The women's 200m freestyle was up next. Fiji's Matelita Buadromo torpedoed her way to gold in 2:08.58, nearly two seconds ahead of New Caledonia’s Toven May (silver), who was followed by teammate Maiana Flament (bronze).
Buadromo was ecstatic to win her first gold medal at the Pacific Games. Incredibly, she has reached the podium 17 times in previous races, but only ever with silver and bronze.
As expected in the men’s 100m backstroke, the top ranked qualifiers for the race, Emmanuel Limozin (NCL), Teiki Dupont (TAH), and Julien Pierre Goyetche (NCL) all reached the podium with only tenths of seconds between them. Limozin claimed gold in 58.60 seconds. Goyetche edged silver in 58.92 seconds and Dupont claimed bronze just 7 hundredths of a second behind him.
In the women’s 100m backstroke, all eyes were on Emma Terebo, who won the event at the Port Moresby 2015 XV Pacific Games along with four other individual medals
Following disqualifications in the preliminaries for the 200m backstroke and the 50m backstroke, this was her first individual performance in the finals at this Games. And she responded, repeating her gold medal performance with a time of 1:02.96, just shy of breaking her own Pacific Games record set in Port Moresby. Lushavel Stickland (SAM) and Lauren Sale (SAM) won silver and bronze respectively in front of the wild home crowd. It was a proud moment for the athletes representing the host country, as two Samoan swimmers took to the podium for the second night in a row.
Terebo said: “I was kind of afraid [after disqualifying previously]. I know that my coaches talked to the organisation because it was twice for me and I was really scared. I was doing everything really slowly to make sure [my form] was perfect, but then when I got into the finals, I was just thinking about the time and winning. It was okay. I was really stressed about it, but it went well, so I’m happy. No more backstroke for me!”
New Caledonia’s Thomas Oswald took just 28.38 seconds to snatch gold in the men’s 50m breaststroke. Benjamin Schulte, who won four medals for Guam in 2015, brought his nation its first medal at Samoa 2019, a silver. Rabua Epeli won bronze for Fiji, their second medal of the evening.
With Adeline Williams, last time’s gold medalist in the women’s 50m breaststroke, competing with a broken foot, Moana Wind took advantage to bring home gold for Fiji, but it was Tilali Scanlan (ASA) that set the crowd on fire with her silver medal finish and the first ever medal in swimming for American Samoa at the Pacific Games. Tahiti’s Poerani Bertrand won bronze, her team’s third of the evening.
The night’s next event was the men's 400m freestyle relay. New Caledonia took a quick and commanding lead, with Tahiti not far behind. Eventually, New Caledonia separated themselves from the pack to cruise to a comfortable win in 3:23.21, and their sixth medal of the evening. Tahiti had to settle for silver after winning gold in 2015 and Fiji’s men swam their way to bronze.
The crowd was wild and flags were flailing as the women’s 400m freestyle relay teams made their way to the blocks for the final event of the evening. After a close start, the women of Fiji eventually took a comfortable lead and gold in the event. Samoa and New Caledonia stayed neck and neck the entire race, with New Caledonia winning silver over Samoa by just 34 hundredths of a second.
The action continues on Friday morning from 10am. Entry is $5.
