15 Jul 2015

Sport: PNG excel on the track at Pacific Games

11:53 am on 15 July 2015

A successful day on the track has kept Papua New Guinea on top of the Pacific Games medal tally.

Papua New Guinea supporters at the Pacific Games

Papua New Guinea supporters at the Pacific Games Photo: Oceania Football Confederation

Sprint star Toea Wisil defended her 100m title in 11.86 seconds, with Fiji's Banuve Tabakaucoro retaining the men's 100m title in 10.55 seconds.

The host nation claimed gold, silver and bronze in the women's high jump with Rellie Kaputin claiming the overal title.

There was double success for PNG in the 800m, with Donna Koniel winning the women's race and Kaminiel Matlaun too strong in the men's.

Robson Yinambe took out the men's decathlon and Sent Anis also added to the home tally with gold in the men's para javelin.

Meanwhile New Caledonia's Elise Takosi claimed gold in the women's hammer throw, ahead of Norfolk Island and Samoa.

Fiji's Eugene Vollmer won the men's triple jump, Rosefelo Siosi from Solomon Islands won the men's 10,000m and Sylvain Bova from New Caledonia won the men's para 100m.

In other results from Port Moresby, Fiji scooped five and New Caledonia four gold medals on day two of karate, with Tahiti, PNG and Vanuatu also having success.

PNG won five gold in bodybuilding, with Tonga winning three events and New Caledonia and American Samoa also adding to their gold medal tally.

New Caledonia and PNG won gold in men's and women's squash.

Meanwhile Vanuatu also produced an upset win over hosts Papua New Guinea in the men's cricket competition.

The Melanesians made a strong start at Bisini with wins over both PNG and Tonga, each who had one win on the day while New Caledonia went down in both its matches in the four-team round-robin tournament.

In the key match-up, Vanuatu posted 172 for 9 off 20 overs then restricted PNG to 144 for 6.