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New Caledonia leads medal standings
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Posted on Jul 26 2005
KOROR, Palau—After one complete day of competition, New Caledonia sent a strong statement to all participating teams in the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games.
The delegation dominated majority of the medal rounds Monday, and are again proving to be a force to reckon with, combining to rack up a whopping 15 medals, including eight gold medals.
The delegation has also hauled in three silvers and a bronze to take a commanding lead in the medal standings.
The Northern Marianas is currently second in the tally, accounting for five of the 34 total medals presented on Day 1. Swimmers Nina Mosley, David Palacios, Amanda Johnson, Melissa Coleman, and Nicole Calvo combined to take home a gold, three silvers, and a bronze.
Southern neighbor Guam is right behind, also getting five medals—four bronzes and a silver.
Meanwhile, Solomon Islands has collected a gold, a silver, and a bronze; Fiji has a gold and a silver; while Wallis and Futuna, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa each have one medal.
NMI delegation chef de mission Michael White expressed his excitement and satisfaction with the performances of all the teams, citing that several losses featured games interrupted by rain.
“We’re really please and really happy,” White said yesterday. “We’re actually second in the medal standings thanks to the swimmers. Our tennis teams did great, both our softball teams lost a couple of unfortunate circumstances, and we know that they’re going to be strong and come back strong.”
White added that he is confident that the CNMI teams could put on better shows before the closing of the Mini Games.
“All in all, we were very pleased, we know that we can do better but we’re very pleased with what we did,” he said.
White again reiterated his satisfaction with accommodations provided by the organizing committee as well as the host country.
“The host country, [and] the organizing committee has just been absolutely amazing,” he said. “They’ve responded to every request and if you ask for something, it gets done. We’re very happy with the accommodations and with all they’ve done for us.”
