New Caledonia Reigns On Second Night Of Swimming
New Caledonia’s swimming team manager, Cyril Huet, praised his swimmers’ “truly exceptional” performance on the second night of action at Faleata Aquatic Centre, as they collected 10 medals, including six golds, to surpass even their own expectations.
New Caledonia began its command of the podium in the men’s 50m backstroke, as Julien Pierre Goyetche took gold in a scorching 27.01 seconds. Ross Netani won silver for Fiji, while Dupont Teiki claimed bronze for Tahiti. All the medalists finished within 5 tenths of a second, setting a strong precedence of competition for the rest of the evening.
The women’s 400m individual medley event was incredibly tense and the crowd was roaring as Maiana Flament of New Caledonia came from behind to catch up in the last 25m of the race to win gold 3 seconds ahead of Tahiti’s Angeline Tregoat, who had a commanding lead up until that point. Fiji's Rosemarie Rova was not far behind winning bronze with a time of 5 minutes and 30.93 seconds.
Maiana Flament of New Caledonia wins gold
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Another day of action at the pool
“The freestyle leg did it for us,” said a proud Flament. “I saw we were matched in the backstroke and breaststroke, so I was starting to get worried. I knew freestyle was my strength, so I gave it all I could since I wasn’t far behind. I don’t know how I was able to pass her, but I did.”
Samoa's Brandon Schuster dominated the men’s 400m individual medley winning gold with a time of 4:24.04, beating Emmanuel Limozin (NCL) who was favoured to win the event after placing first during the preliminary round. Alex Huet of New Caledonia joined Limozin on the podium with the bronze.
Samoa’s Lushavel Stickland won gold in the women’s 50m backstroke in 29.96 seconds. Rova Cheyenne of Fiji won silver, and Samoa had more joy with Jelani Wetzell snatching bronze to see the hosts claim two of the three spots on the podium.
Top step of the podium for Samoa’s Lushavel Stickland
“I couldn’t even see my place, I just heard the cheering,” Stickland laughed. “I’m really proud to do it for the team, and we also had Jelani on the podium as well, so to share it with her was awesome.”
The home crowd fired up again when last night’s gold medalist, Samoa’s Lauren Sale, took her spot on the starting blocks for the women’s 100m butterfly. But it was New Caledonia who took home the gold, courtesy of May Toven, in a tightly contested race that Toven finished in 1:03.32. Sale was never far behind, but ultimately took silver with a time of 1:04.27 and Julie Decaix (NCL) took bronze.
Thibaut Mary (NCL) and Nicolas Vermorel (TAH) swam neck and neck throughout the men’s 100m butterfly but it was Mary who inched out the gold with a time of 54.16 seconds, only 0.07 seconds faster than Vermorel, who had posted the fastest qualifying race. Thomas Oswald (NCL) finished third and brought New Caledonia its eighth medal of the evening on day 2.
The women’s leg of the 800m freestyle relay was an inspiring show of human spirit at Samoa 2019. The crowd roared as Samoa’s team took silver behind New Caledonia, and the entire Aquatics Centre continued to cheer and clap as Fiji took bronze and the Papua New Guinea swimmers hit the touchpad.
The women embraced after the race and New Caledonia’s anchor, Emma Terebo, left the pool to the sound of her teammates and fans singing “happy birthday”.
New Caledonia continued its rule over the pool in the final race of the night. The men’s relay team cruised to a gold medal finish and their tenth medal of the night. Tahiti was not far behind and won silver medal to bring their total medal count to four. Fiji won bronze and their fifth medal of the evening.
“Our goal was four golds and we got six, plus the bronze and silver medals, which weren’t expected,” said New Caledonia team manager Cyril Huet. “We are so proud—it was perfect and truly exceptional. Tomorrow, we have eight chances at gold, and our goal is three or four.”
At the end of day 2, New Caledonia has a total of 21 medals, Fiji and Tahiti both have 10 medals, Samoa has nine, and Papua New Guinea has one.
Thursday’s action begins at 10am at Faleata Aquatic Centre with preliminary rounds. Entry is $5.
