Five records broken on opening night

Five records were broken in the opening night of the 2nd Micronesia Athletics Championships Wednesday at the Oleai Sports Complex.

Rising star Leana Peters of Guam continues to make a name for herself in the region as she followed up her medal performances in the Palau South Pacific Mini Games by breaking the MAC women’s 800m record while striking gold after completing the two-lap challenge in just 2:31.59.

“It was very good competition and I think everybody did really well in the race, and I just think it’s a good accomplishment,” the 16-year-old said. “I just thought about my teammates and about representing Guam…the pride you have from where you’re from.”

With her effort, Peters shattered the old record by more than five seconds. The old mark of 2:36.69 was held by Christine Vicente of Guam.

Another who would certainly receive recognition when he returns to Guam is Justin Andre, who raised the bar in the men’s hammer throw, whose gold medal performance of 47.63 meters was almost 12 meters better than the old record (35.67 meters), which was held by Steve Carrerra of Palau.

“Knowing that the hammer event is an up-and-coming event for the Micronesian area, and me being a part of it, its quite exciting having to set a standard there and hopefully everybody will follow along and eventually we’ll go to every other islands and compete at high standards,” he said.

The 21-year-old University of Guam student explained that he gained interest in the event after watching it for a while.

“When I saw it was fun to watch, and when I started competing in it, it became a little easier for me and felt more natural to start to learn,” he said.

Shortly after Kiribati Athletics secretary David Little expressed the country’s goal of breaking national records, two of his athletes came through and set new marks for the MAC.

Nineteen-year-old Taatia Riino set a new MAC and Kiribati national junior records in the women’s hammer throw with a distance of 28.75 meters, while Buraieta Yeeting did the same in the men’s triple jump when he leaped 13.35 meters across the sand pit. The old hammer throw record held by Guam’s Christina Duenas was 18.94 meters, while the old mark for the triple jump was 12.82 by Kiribati’s Paul Bwaraniko.

“It was a hell of a start…two events, two gold medals,” Little said. “In practice at home about a week ago, [Riino] had been throwing more than the National record, so it wasn’t surprising. Five of her six throws were better than the previous record so that was good.”

“[Yeeting] jumped his personal best twice in his first three jump[s, so he’s pushed he’s performance up, and then also did a personal best in the high jump.”

Another record fell in the women’s discus as Palau’s Chandis Cooper bettered her own mark set in 2003 with a throw of 29.77 meters. Her previous MAC record was 28.94 meters.

“I didn’t know I broke it until [yesterday] morning, but I feel okay,” Cooper said. “Everything was okay and then when it came to the last two rounds, I kind a realized that I was in third place, so I really tried my best and moved up to first with my second to the last throw.”

The 19-year-old also disclosed that she also looks forward to returning to Saipan for next summer’s Micronesian Games, after which she may take a break from the sport.

“That’s supposedly my last because I’ll be going to school,” she said.