Fiji men's soccer team qualifies for the Pacific Games semifinals

The Fiji men’s soccer team has qualified for both the Olympic playoff semifinal and gold medal semi‑finals at the Pacific Games.

Fiji drew nil-all with Tahiti yesterday afternoon.

Host PNG has also qualified for the Pacific Games semi‑finals with a 2‑1 win over the Solomon Islands.

In the Olympic play‑off semifinals, New Zealand will play Vanuatu while PNG will play Fiji.

The Olympic semifinal 1 will be played at 1pm while semifinal 2 is at 4.30pm.

Both games are on Friday.

Meanwhile, New Caledonia, PNG, Tahiti and Fiji will play in the Pacific Games gold medal semi‑finals.

Fiji’s Apolonia Vaivai settled for 3 silver medals in the women’s weightlifting last night.

Vaivai won silver in the womens 69kg/75kg Snatch category, silver medal in the clean and jerk categories and scored an overall 204 points to also claim a silver medal. 

Vaivai says her next aim is to qualify for the Olympics.

The Fiji swimming team settled for two silver medals last night.

In the 50metres women’s backstroke final, Caroline Puamau finished second while Emma Terebo of New Caledonia who won gold also broke the Pacific Games record with a new time of 29.18secs.

The old time was 29.86 seconds.

The other silver medal came from Matelita Buadromo in the 200m women’s freestyle final.

New Caledonia's Lara Grangeon who won gold also set a new Pacific Games record time of 2 minutes 3 seconds.

The old time was 2 minutes 8 seconds.

Speaking from PNG last night, Buadromo says swimming against Grangeon was not an easy task.

She says they will now need to focus on the other events.

Tieri Erasito finished 5th in the 200m women’s freestyle final.

In the 200m women’s breaststroke final, Fiji’s Rosemary Rova finished 6th while Lara Grangeon who won gold also broke the Pacific Games record with a new time of 2 minutes 33 seconds.

The old time was 2 minutes 36 seconds.

In the 400m men’s Individual Medley final, Fiji swimmer Douglas Miller finished 4th while Taichi Vakasama finished 5th and in the 4x200m men’s Freestyle relay final, Fiji finished 5th.

The women’s 100m Backstroke final is at 8.01 tonight, the men’s 100m Freestyle final is at 8.07pm, the women’s 400m Freestyle final is at 8.13pm, the men’s 50m Backstroke final is at 8.32pm, the women’s 50m Backstroke final is at 8.47pm, the men’s 400m Freestyle final is at 9.05pm while the mix 4x50m Medley Relay  final is at 9.24pm.

The Fiji women’s Va’a team settled for a bronze medal in the 500m V12 while the men’s team finished 5th. 

In women’s cricket, PNG beat Fiji by 82 runs yesterday.

Fiji will play their next match against Samoa at 12pm tomorrow.

The side had beaten New Caledonia by 8 wickets and Cook Islands by 71 runs.

The Fiji women’s Basketball team has qualified for the Pacific Games playoffs after beating American Samoa 81-73 yesterday.

The women’s basketball playoff competition will be held at 2pm tomorrow.

The men’s Basketball team has also qualified for the playoffs which will start at 1pm today.

Looking at the Fijivillage Pacific Games medal tally, Papua New Guinea is leading with 19 gold, 12 silver and 7 bronze. 

Tahiti is in second place with 10 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze, Australia is in third place with 8 gold and 11 silver and 7 bronze, Samoa is now in fourth place with 8 gold and 11 silver and New Caledonia is in fifth place with 7 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze.

Team Fiji is in sixth place with 4 gold, 10 silver and 8 silver. 

Stay with us for the latest updates and results on the Pacific Games.