Tahiti wins three gold at va'a

For women's V1 500, Tahiti's Vaimiti Maoni won gold, edging out Fiji's Elenoa Vateitei, and Samoa's Anne Cairns who won bronze, which delighted her team mates.

The men's V1 500 saw Tahiti's Kevin Ceran Jerusalemy win gold, New Caledonia's Titouan Puyo silver and the Cook Islands' Andre Tutaka-George coming in for bronze.

The paddlers were tested in the afternoon competitions with choppy sea and wind increasing to 18 knots from the east.

This meant that the first boat over the start line had the advantage coming into the turns. The turns in the 500 are the make or break for teams.

The crowds were vocal in encouraging their teams, except at the turns when everyone was holding their breath to watch the va'a slowly make the turn - a great sight to see the va'a maneuvering around the marks. 

The women's race faced the same wind conditions and choppy seas.

Sailing

Sailing was delayed this morning due to lack of wind. Once the eastly set in racing was on.
Day 2 saw the fleet split again after the first mark, with the top 4-5 racing together.

The wind picked up and the sea had some white caps.

New Caledonia's Juliette Bone is leading after 6 races with 10 points.

Rosa-Lee Numa from Papua New Guinea came in 4th today after 6 races.

She said: "It was harder than yesterday, but it got better once the wind picked up."

She was also pleased to be sailing brand new lazers and said that "with a fleet here it would really open up opportunities for more regattas in the Pacific." Numa has her two brothers with her.

Her younger brother is her coach and her other brother will sail next week. They laughed when I asked who was the boss out of sailing. All looking forward to day 3.