Transcript
Anolyn Lulu, Priscilla Tommy and Liopa Santhy all won their matches to clinch Vanuatu's first gold medal of the Mini Games, with the reverse singles not required.
It was the first gold medal for the women's team since 2009 and captain Anolyn Lulu says their hard work paid off.
"Well I can say that we really prepared for this and performing in front of our home crowd this is a first time for us and we wanted to make our people proud and we did it."
Anolyn Lulu has represented Vanuatu in table tennis for almost two decades, competing at Pacific Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.
But she says finally getting to play in front of a home crowd was something else.
"Performing outside when nobody else watch you or cheer for you but performing on your home ground it can be an advantage and also a disadvantage because we've never got used to the crowd. But, for me, I really prepared because I want to show my parents and my kids and the whole people of Vanuatu this is how we play overseas, this is how we represented Vanuatu. We fight to win medals and we did it."
The men followed suit a few hours later, with Yoshua Shing winning the deciding fifth match in four sets.
"We've never won a gold medal in our history of table tennis in Vanuatu so for us I think it's first gold medal for our boys on the team. It's very very important for us and we're so grateful. We've put a lot of hard work, a lot of training, a lot of sweat into this moment and we're also proud of this."
Team Vanuatu Chef de Mission Henry Tavoa says the women are known as the "golden girls" and it was great for the home crowd to finally see them in action, while the men capped off a perfect night.
"For the men it was just a matter of when not if because they had all this training, all this preparation and of course again with the home crowd it was just awesome that the men have come up and matched the women in the team event. We forsee that continuing for some time in the future."
Judoka Joe Mahit won Vanuatu's first medal of the Mini Games earlier in the day, with a runners up effort in the men's 66kg category.
The 25 year old, who went to the Rio Olympics, says a shoulder injury had been causing some trouble so he was more than happy with a silver medal.
"It makes me proud, really happy to win a medal in front of my home crowd just makes me really happy."
Vanuatu also won three more medals in judo to take their total haul to six in one day, with more prospects in the likes of tennis, football and beach volleyball still to come.
In Vanuatu, Vinnie Wylie.
