Coco Talanoa — Sports / Page 15

23yr old, javelin thrower Donny Tuimaseve is ready to perform for Samoa at his second Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.  He has made the finals and will be Samoa's final athlete to compete.

Tuimaseve is self-taught in the art of javelin throwing, watching vision and tips on YouTube to refine his javelin craft over the years. In that time, he has thrown a national record for Samoa twice, with the most recent being a 69.05m throw at last month’s Pacific Mini Games in Northern Mariana Islands.

Born in Samoa, he had never seen javelin on the TV or even heard of the sport until one day at high school he came across the light spear equipment designed to be thrown as far as possible.

Read more about Donny's INCREDIBLE story here:  https://www.people2u.com.au/news/don-ing-the-red-and-blue-on-the-world-stage/

History was made this morning for one of our smallest island nations - Niue!  Heavyweight boxer Duken Williams made history for Niue when he beat his opponent - Cook Islander Michael Schuster - in the Quarter finals to be guaranteed a Bronze medal. 

It will be the first time Niue has ever won a Commonwealth Games medal.

He now faces Samoan Heavyweight contender Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali in the Semi-final.  Ato is also chasing Gold this time round after taking Silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

* Photo above:  Duken Williams after making history this morning for Niue in his Quarterfinal.   Photo Credit:  Express & Star 

Many of our Commonwealth Games teams wound up their campaign last night - so who is left to cheer on this weekend?  We've got the deets for you below.

NB:  All times given below are in NZT

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COOK ISLANDS 

The Cook Islands Triples Womens Lawn Bowls team have made the semi-final!  They take on England from 7.30pm 

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Fiji, Kiribati & Tuvalu's athletes have all finished competing in their respective events.…more

We're over half way through the games now and Samoa are currently leading the medal tally for the Pacific Islands with 1 Gold and 3 Silver by way of their weightlifters. 

Fiji currently have the double silver from their Fiji Rugby 7s teams & a bronze in Weightlifting, Papua New Guinea has a Silver in Weightlifting and Nauru managed to bag a Bronze in weightlifting before they finished their Commonwealth Games campaign too.

Catch up on our weekend wrap here  and the Pacifics first Gold medal here 

It's been a busy couple of days for our Pasifika athletes so we've got results & who to look out for as we head into the weeekend for you below.

NB all times indicated below are in NZT.

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COOK ISLANDS 

Alex Beddoes is the Cook Islands sole track athlete and ran his 800m heat yesterday with a season best time of 1:52.72

Kuki boxer Tawhiri Toheriri-Hallet went down to Cyprus' Rafail Pafios over the weekend but you can check out his story in the video below.…more

The Pacific islands have snatched their first 2022 Commonwealth Games GOLD ladies and Gentlemen!  

In fact, our Pasifika athletes managed to collect one Gold and two Bronze medals in Weightlifting for three of our island nations early this morning.

Samoa have won their first Gold with 23yr old Don Opeloge smashing the Commonwealth Games record in the Mens 96kg Weightlifting final.  He strolled in and snatched 171kg and clean & jerked 210kg giving him an aggregate score of 381kg (also a Comm Games record).  Fijian Taniela Rainibogi picked up Bronze in the same event.

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Earlier in the evening Maximina Uepa picked up a Bronze medal for Nauru - one of the smallest Pacific island nations competing at the Commonwealth Games! How good?!

Maximina competed in the 76kg division lifting 96kg in the Snatch and 119kg in the Clean & Jerk.

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Take a look at how our Pacific Islands teams are tracking and who we should look out for over the next few days at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

NB all times indicated below are in NZT.…more

The 22nd Commonwelath Games kicked off in Birmingham, UK on the 28th of July with the opening ceremony held at the Alexander Stadium.  11 of our Pacific Islands nations are competing - Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu & Vanuatu.  

The theme of the games is 'Sport is the beginning of all' and the Pacific Islands nations walked out in alphabetical order together with Australia and New Zealand under the Oceania region.

Swipe through for some of our teams marching in.

We've put together a few of the highlights from the weekends competition as well as a couple of 'Ones to watch' in events that are still to come.

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History makers 

Solomon Islands and Tuvalu have teams that have qualified for Beach Volleyball for the very first time at the Commonwealth Games.

Hanna Marasalau & Calorose Sisia (below) are the womens pair who debuted at the games for the Solomons losing to England in their first game but will play fellow Pacific Islanders Vanuatu next and Scotland in their final pool game.…more

Coco Sports Talk with Penina and Ashley - covering all things sports from a Pasifika female lens!

#CocoSportsTalk looks at the many stories of Pasifika people involved in sports of all kinds, and the trials and tribulations of the talented athletes from all sectors of our community.

In this episode we meet a few of the Pasifika athletes who are about to compete in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK.

We meet a couple of the young men in the Niue Boxing Team at their fundraising event in Grey Lynn - Duken Williams and Deniro Pao Clarke plus check out their sparring session with legendary fight coach Lolo Heimuli.

We head over to the Kingdom of Tonga to visit rising Tongan shot put star 'Atamaama Tu'utafaiva and then we're back in Auckland to meet a history making wrestling team.…more

Follow Roger Tuivasa-Sheck on his first day in All Blacks camp as he reveals what made him switch codes to rugby union.

Mwea was one from a handful of deserving athletes from the Pacific to head to the Tokyo 2020 games.

He is a track and field competitor with a bright future ahead of him.

#MicronesianExcellence 🏆

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Video credit: ONOC

Coco Sports Talk with Penina and Ashley - covering all things sports from a Pasifika female lens!

#CocoSportsTalk looks at the many stories of Pasifika people involved in sports of all kinds, and the trials and tribulations of the talented athletes from all sectors of our community. This episode we meet a few of the Pasifika women playing in the Pac4 Series as a build up to the Rugby World Cup in October here in New Zealand.

We talk to the most capped Wallaroo Liz Patu about her historic achievement & the journey to get there plus some of the younger Pasifika Wallaroos girls.…more

"He's been a great fighter for a long time, but I'm the new generation of greatness coming through" - Jai Opetaia with a prophetic statement in a pre-fight interview leading up to the fight against Mairis Briedis.

On the 2nd of July 2022, the Samoan boxer went on to win a stunning upset victory over Latvian Mairis Briedis on the Gold Coast claiming both the IBF and Ring magazine cruiserweight titles.

Check out the championship round highlights of the fight below -