The Rarotonga-born athlete who took part in the women’s 100 metres dash yesterday, managed to finish on sixth place in the preliminary rounds of the competition in a time of 12.30 seconds.
This qualified her to round one competition in which she managed 61st place overall in 12.41s.
Team Cook Islands chef de mission Robert Graham said Taea’s qualification to round two was the first for the country.
He praised the 23-year-old for the achievement.
Taea also competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics where she was ranked 14th in the preliminaries for the women’s 100 metres in a time of 12.47 seconds.
Since then she has bettered her time in the event and set the national record in the women’s 100m at the 2009 Pacific Mini Games in Wallis and Futuna with a time of 12.29s. Earlier this year, the Gold Coast-based athlete improved that time to 12.22s in Brisbane, Australia.
Fellow athlete Alex Beddoes also competed yesterday in the men’s 800m event.
He finished on 51st place overall in a time of 1 minute 52.76 seconds.
Swimmer Wesley Roberts took part in the men’s 1500 metres freestyle event and finished on 44th place overall in a time of 15 minutes 44.32 seconds.
Meanwhile sailors Taua Elisa Henry and Teau McKenzie took part in the laser radial event yesterday and recorded mixed results.
Henry finished on 45 in race seven while McKenzie managed 33 and 35 spots in race seven and eight, respectively.
The duo will have their final races today.
Weightlifter Luisa Peters is the last Team Cook Islands athlete to compete at the Rio Olympics tomorrow in the women’s over 75 kilogramme event.
Last Modified on 17/08/2016 02:12