Words: Bob Snow
The distance events show how much of a gap there is between Australia and New Zealand and the Pacific Island Teams.

What can be done about this gap, which is not seen in the sprints and explosive events?

Obviously more cross country and road running events, PLUS more distance races for school aged athletes. In Fiji, at the Fiji Finals (the major school competition) there is just one 3000m race for Girls and one 3000m race Boys. Many schools regard the 1500m as a long-distance event.

What about in other Pacific Island nations? How serious are they in promoting long distance running? Do they rely on US colleges to do the heavy work of training and development of the distance running? In the Jamaican Schools’ Finals – known as “Champs” – they have the 5000m event and the 2000m Steeplechase. They have the Decathlon as well. Check on the internet to see the huge array of disciplines that they have in their five-day meet each Easter.

A good Fiji Shot Put prospect for the future. Coming third in the U18 Women’s event, Maryann Macedru threw the 3.00kg shot 15.19m, to finish on the podium. See how she goes in future years when she graduates to the 4.00kg implement.

In the U18 men’s High Jump, the winner, with a height of 2.03m was Australia’s Liam Shadbolt. Claiming the silver medal was Fiji’s Isoa Vunimatana with 1.96m. Fiji has a very good history of producing top Island high jumpers, and this trend is likely to continue.

With the new World Ranking System and the 170 bonus points on offer to competitors who win a Senior Oceania Championship, it was not expected to see many Pacific Islands’ athletes stand atop the dais. To prove everyone wrong, along came Ata Maama Tu’utafaiva from Tonga to successfully defended her title that she claimed in 2022 in Mackay. With her second throw of 16.24m the gold medal was hers. Well done – and the Kingdom of Tonga, and your fellow 108,000 countrywomen (and men) cheer your success. Small countries can have success against large countries like Australia – which has over 26,000,000 people.

Fiji’s Francis Bakaniceva won the bronze medal in the U18 Men’s 100m with a time of 11.05 seconds, narrowly beating countryman Nathanael Chand who clocked 11.07 seconds. Australian Jonathan Kasiano won the gold with a time of 10.84 seconds.

The final track events of Day Four of the Championship were the 100m Senior Finals.

In the Women’s event, as expected, Ella Connolly (AUS) won in the time of 11.41 seconds, from teammate Ebony Lane (11.53 seconds) and PNG’s Leonie Beu (11.85 seconds). PNG’s hurdle specialist, Adrine Monagi came 6th in 12.01 seconds.

The Senior Men’s 100m Final was a showdown for the Australian “Big Three” and they did not disappoint. The gold went to Joshua Azzopardi (10.33 seconds), Sebastian Sultana (10.35 seconds) and Rohan Browning (10.40 seconds) – into a slight wind of -0.9 mps.

The three Islanders in the race were – Pais Wisil (PNG – 5th in 10.81 seconds), Emmanuel Anis (PNG – 6th in 10.84 seconds) and Waisake Tewa (FIJ – 8th in 10.95 seconds).