The whole delegation.
The whole Kiribati Commonwealth Games Association (KCGA) delegation includes athletes and officials from Athletics, Boxing, Table-Tennis, Weight-Lifting, and Wrestling. In addition there are officials from KCGA plus representatives of the Kiribati Government. The funded quota (with travelling funded by the CGF) is now up to 25 people, based on the participation of Kiribati in the four Games since they were first included in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. The ex-Assistant Secretary of KCGA (David Little) is based now in UK anyway. Government funding has been granted to cover the travel costs of the rest of the delegation. The bulk of the team arrived in Glasgow on Sunday, July 20th. The Chef de Mission of the delegation is Ms. Maata Yetzes, Secretary of KAA and Vice-President of KCGA.
Athletics Team.
The selected team includes sprinter Nooa Takooa (contesting 100m.), jumper Boitu Baiteke (in the Long Jump and Triple Jump), and thrower Raobu Tarawa (in the Shot and Discus). All are experienced international athletes. Boitu currently holds the National Records (NRs) for TJ, Pole Vault, and Decathlon. Raobu holds the NRs for Shot and Discus.
The I-Kiribati coach with the team is Brian Fukuyama, Head Coach and Vice-President for KAA.
It is hoped that they will be able to recover from their long journey, acclimatise, support other team-members and complete several training sessions before the Athletics Technical Meeting on Friday, July 25th. and then the commencing of the Athletics competition on Sunday, July 27th
.First impressions.
Glasgow is not an enormous city, but various new buildings and motorways have made negotiating its streets more complex. There are many traffic lights ! At its heart is still the River Clyde. There are many minute details which have been covered by the LOC, plus a few which have not, e.g. the necessary provision of a large range of food to suit different diets and cultures offers a huge temptation to many people who live simply and on a very basic diet, often of flour, fish, and rice.
Training.
Although Brian had managed to start training with the athletes on Monday (July 21), not all could be catered for at the same venue. So on Tuesday we split, with David taking Raobu to Lesser Hampden for Shot, and Brian with the other two at Scotstoun. During Wednesday Brian repeated his efforts with the same two, while Raobu was taken to do Discus at Torryglen. A rest day followed on Thursday, then on Friday we repeated Wednesday, but having purchased some smoother-soled shoes for Raobu so that he did not continue to risk the deep tread of his supplied trainers catching the rough surface of the discus circle, thus causing some slight damage to his right ankle (as had happened on Wednesday). Finally, having been informed at the Technical Meeting on Friday night that Boitu would not be allowed to use the 11m. board for his TJ take-off, we found a little-used (and relatively unknown) INDOOR facility at Scotstoun so that Nooa could do practice starts and Boitu could consider using the 13m. take-off
Results.
Competition starts for the athletes on Sunday (July 27) and results from that and subsequent days will be posted up as they happen. The weather has been tropical and dry for training but broke today with the first rain. This may affect many things, including performances. However the group remains realistic and optimistic.
In the Heats of the M 100m. on July 27, Nooa ran in Heat 9. He placed 9th. of the nine runners in 11.56, just outside his advertised PB. (Wind +0.2) The winner, from Trinidad and Tobago, ran 10.16. The fastest of the Oceania sprinters was from Fiji and ran 10.51. However, Nooa had the =3rd.-fastest reaction time (to the gun) of all the 65 athletes there. This is a credit to the starting practice he has received., with a delay of only 0.141 sec.
In the A group of would-be qualifiers for the M Shot Putt Final, Raobu Tarawa putted second in the 10-man rotation. He fouled on his first attempt, did his best throw (12.08m.) with his next, and collapsed to a slow 11.25m. with his third and last trial. (Only three attempts in Qualifying rounds.) It was evident that his movement has slowed and dynamism was lacking. As with previous I-Kiribati athletes, he tends to stand and watch rather than focus and get on with his own preparation.
PROTEST.
In advance of the Athletics Technical Meeting (last Friday evening), we submitted a question as to whether or not Boitu would be allowed to use the 11m. take-off board in the M TJ next Friday. (Better athletes will use the normal 13m. board.) At that Meeting it was announced that he could NOT use the 11m. board "because of the media" ! But why are we here ? For the media, or for the athletes ?? The Technical Delegates had already decided to lower the starting height for one of the PV competitions, "to facilitate the participation of the less-experienced athletes". That decision is admirable, but surely such flexibility could also be used in the TJ ? Yesterday (Sunday) we submitted a protest along these lines and now await the result.
Since this is a matter of confidence rather than athletics performance, it is likely that, if they insist on him using the 13m. board, we will have to withdraw him from the competition.
BUT the Technical Delegate allowed him to take-off from 11m. (We had the reply last night - Tuesday.)
BOITU in the LONG JUMP.
To give Boitu more grip, we had replaced his worn 6mm. spikes with longer 9mm. This morning (Wednesday) he tried them during his warm-up but they were uncomfortable. So we changed them to new 6mm. In the event, jumping in the same Qualification pool as Olympic Champion Greg Rutherford, Boitu achieved a number of things. He received three white flags = legal jumps. All his jumps were over 6m. with a sequence of 6.37m., 6.35m., and 6.26m., each with a slight (0.6 / 0.2 / 0.2) following wind. The two athletes preceding him in the 13-man rotation both received "No Mark", i.e. three red flags ! They were experienced athletes from Trinidad and from Jamaica ! So he can be proud to have jumped his PB. (See image)
Raobu better in the Discus.
On Wednesday, July 30, at Hampen Park Stadium, Raobu produced his best series of throws for some years when he competed in Pool B of the M Discus. His first throw was his best at 39.23m. Then followed two more legal throws, at 37.14m. and 37.96m. This was achieved with a no fuss approach and effective technique. There were faults which need work and it seems obvious that he needs strength work to pull him back up to the 40m. level he has achieved in the past. (See image)
Boitu off the 11m. board - and safe !
Following the successful protest, Boitu tonight (August 1st.) cleared just below 13m. but then did 13.21m. with his third attempt. This was a more confident and technically better jump. There is still work to do for him to get back to his level of high 13m. jumps. His series was 12.97 (wind 1.1), 12.68 (0.8), and 13.21 (0.4).
Images.
The first four images are of Nooa, Raobu and Boitu, and Brian is in blue with the training group.
CG Gold Coast 2018.
The 21st. edition of the Commonweath Games is due to be held in Gold Coast, Quennsland, Australia, in July/August 2018. For Kiribati (and many others) that will be much closer to home !
Last Modified on 02/08/2014 11:30