Team Fiji gears up to win more medals today

Team Fiji is hoping to win more medals today as a number of events start in the Pacific Games this afternoon.

Swimming started in the last hour with the finals scheduled from 8 tonight.

Our female swimmers, Matelita Buadromo, Caroline Puamau and Cheyenne Rova, all won their heats in the 100 metres freestyle event this morning.

Buadromo won her heat with a time of 59.36 seconds while Caroline Puamau clocked 59.33 seconds in the second heat of the female 100 metres freestyle.

Veteran Fijian swimmer Carl Probert finished fourth in his 50 metres backstroke heat with a time of 29.29 seconds.

William Clark finished second in his heat with a time of 27.76 seconds.

Douglas Miller came in third in the 200 metres freestyle heat.

The men’s 50 metres backstroke, 100 metres backstroke, 200 metres freestyle, 4x100 metres freestyle finals will be held tonight.

In the women’s events, our swimmers will take part in the 100 metres freestyle, 400 metres individual medley and 4x100 metres freestyle.

Swimming coach Sharon Smith has already said that they hope to lift their performance and win some gold medals in this year’s Pacific Games.

Team Fiji did not win any gold medals in the 2011 Pacific Games.

In the Va’a races this morning, the Fiji women’s team came in first in the 1500 metres heat while the Fiji men’s team finished in third place in the first heat.

According to the Fijivillage Pacific Games medal tally, Team Fiji is currently leading with 3 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.

Papua New Guinea is in second place with 3 gold medals while New Caledonia is in third place with 2 gold and 2 bronze medals.

Fiji weightlifter Manueli Tulo won three gold medals in the Pacific Games after winning the men’s 56kg snatch, clean and jerk categories last night.

Seruwaia Malani settled for three bronze medals in the women’s 58kg snatch, clean and jerk categories.

Looking at other sports:

The Fiji men’s basketball team will play American Samoa this hour while the women’s basketball team will take on Solomon Islands at 4pm today.

The Fiji women’s soccer team will play their first match against PNG at 5pm today while our women’s cricket team will take on Cook Islands from this hour.

Other sports starting today are tennis, shooting, squash and Va’a.