Photo: First man home and gold medal winner David Esposito from New Caledonia.
It was an amazing morning. The sun shone beautifully over Avatiu's second wharf. Fishermen delayed going out for the day, to honour the big event of the day, the Pacific Mini Games Triathlon.
A 30 second moment of silence in remembrance of the tragedy experienced in Samoa yesterday was observed.
And then it was show time!
The teams arrived bright and chirpy, with registering a breeze, they all got down to the serious part of the beautiful day, focussing their minds on the course ahead - 1500m swim, 40km bike cycle, and the 10km run through the Panama park and trees.
First home for the men was David Esposito from New Caledonia in a time of 2hours 6 minutes and 39 seconds. He was followed 2 and a half minutes behind by Tahiti's Laurent Barra. In third place was Aymeric Levasseur, also from New Caledonia, with a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes and 18 seconds.
In the women's division, it was a New Caledonia whitewash, with Erica Ellis in first place (2:24:45), Catherine Grangeon in second place (2:28:35), and Kandy Point in third spot (2:31:27).
Cook’s first man home was Geoff Stoddart (2:16:20), with Thomas Henderson (2:17:55) following in 7th place after Geoff.
Jenny George romped in the first Cook Islands woman at 2:34:00, as well as being the fourth overall women.
Our Cooks team did well in the team event to take out the bronze medal, with Tahiti taking the silver, and of course New Caledonia taking the gold.
Rangi Apera and Apii Napa, performed very well, exceeding their local personal best times in this event by definitely shaving some good minutes off.
The crowd was warm, the medal ceremony was fantastic and the honour of presenting the gold went to a representative of The Computerman.
Thank you Cook Islands for coming out in the numbers to support our team and all the teams that performed exceedingly well today. Kia manuia.
Vaine Wichman (Media Rep for Cook Islands Triathlon)
For more race photos check our Photo Gallery Race Photos album.
Last Modified on 01/10/2009 16:13