Melanesia places 1st overall in Oceania Cup

First place team Melanesia poses for a group photo after the awards ceremony of the Oceania Cup last Saturday in the final night of the Taste of the Marianas at the Garapan Fishing Base.(Leigh Gases )

Team Melanesia racked up the most points in the Oceania Cup track and field events last Friday and Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex.

Melanesia garnered a whopping 273 points; second place went to Polynesia with 196; Australia was third with 190; Micronesia was fourth with 163; and NMI was fifth with 138.

The Top 3 countries of the Oceania Cup were awarded during the closing ceremony on the final night of the Taste of the Marianas Saturday night in front of a huge crowd attended by Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, Oceania Athletics executive director Yvonne Mullins, Northern Marianas Athletics president Ramon Tebuteb, Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion, and athletes/coaches of the Oceania Cup.

Countries that competed for Team Melanesia were Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Norfolk Island; Polynesia consisted of American Samoa, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu; and Micronesia were the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Palau.

Team Australia was third place in the Oceania Cup after the awards ceremony in the last day of the Taste of Marianas last Saturday at the Garapan Fishing Base.(Leigh Gases)

Melanesia topped the women’s 100m, 200m, 400m, 100m short hurdles, 400m long hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump, javelin throw, men’s 100m, 200m, 800m, 3,000m, 400m long hurdles, 4x100m relay, triple jump, javelin throw, and mixed 4x100m relay.

Polynesia grabbed first in the women’s discus, men’s 1,500m, men’s 110m short hurdles, and men’s discus.

For Australia, they were first place in the women’s 800m, 3,000m, shot put, women’s hammer throw, men’s 400m, high jump, long jump, men’s hammer throw, and mixed 4x400m relay.

Team Polynesia poses for a photo after claiming second place in the Oceania cup after the awards ceremony at the last night of the Taste of the Marianas last Saturday at the Garapan Fishing Base.(Leigh Gases)

Brett Green, head coach for the Melanesian team, said after the ceremony, “It was a fabulous competition over the two days. The masters are still going tomorrow as well so we have four days of competition and it’s fantastic to have all the athletes from all the different nations across the Oceania region to come over like one big family.”

Heading into the competition, Green said “We thought we’d be very competitive, but we also knew that Australia would be a good team. We knew we had very stiff opposition from a number of other regions and we just focused on what we needed to do and executed as well as we could.”

Tebuteb, before the ceremony said, “Thank you CNMI, and thank you to all the athletes and participating countries who joined us. We are looking at a number of 200 plus including some technical officials.”

He then thanked the MVA for their sponsorship of the ceremony, Gov. Palacios, their major sponsors Coca Cola, Foremost, Powerade, Subway, IT&E, and McDonald’s.

In the awards ceremony, Mullins congratulated and thanked everyone. “We are so happy to be here and we are so privileged to have what is the best facility in not just Micronesia, but the Pacific!” she exclaimed. “We have more athletes here than in the Pacific Mini Games last year. We have more athletes competing in athletics this time, 12 months later than we had last year. You should be so proud of CNMI for what you’ve done here—congratulations.”

“This week hasn’t just been about the Oceania Cup. It’s been about the Oceania Cup and the Oceania Masters Championships. The Oceania Masters Championships has been here alongside the Oceania Cup and we are so happy that we’ve been able to bring something here in the CNMI that means your environment, your population, and your community is just going to get healthier and healthier. And that’s a great thing Mr. Governor—you’re so privileged to be able to see so many of your athletes here who are over 35 years of age competing and participating, so congratulations on bringing this event here.”

Robin Sapong, Oceania Athletics president, said “A big congratulations to all that have traveled and competed. We hope to see you all [in] the next edition in 2025.”

Results of the Oceania Masters Championships will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.