At the wonderful throws stadium at Boulari, the first event of the 2011 Games was the Women’s Hammer Throw. The favourite was Elise Takosi (NCL), and she looked as though she was on her way to claiming the Games Record (50.70m – ‘Ana Po’uhila from Tonga) when she had an early throw of 50.13m. Then the rain started and it was a matter of surviving the slippery conditions while striving for increased distance.
Try as they could, Margaret Satupai (SAM) – 49.71m and ‘Ana Po’uhila (TGA) – 47.27m found the conditions were just not conducive to big throws, and Elise’s 50.13m was good enough to claim the gold. The medal ceremony, held in driving rain at Numa Daly Stadium, capped off an interesting start to our sport’s busy seven-day programme.
The rain probably played a big part in the men’s Hammer Throw. Favourite, and unbeaten all year in domestic competition, was Erwan Cassier (NCL). He was trying to go one better than his father, Frederic Cassier, who won the silver medal in the Noumea Games of 1987. The slippery Hammer circle was not ideal for Erwan as he played catch-up with his team-mates, the brothers Toto (Tomasi and Eutesio - NCL). The brothers handled the wet conditions very well, and both were rewarded with personal bests - and the gold and bronze medals. Like his father 24 years before, Erwan had to settle for the silver medal (55.11m). The winner, with a distance of 57.81m was the elder of the brothers, Tomasi, with his young brother Eutesio claiming third with a throw of 54.20m. A clean sweep of the medals for the host nation.
Back in Numa Daly Stadium, the venue for the rest of the track and field events, the rain was playing havoc with the Pole Vault competitions. Clearly handling conditions better than her competitors was event favourite, Dolores Dogba (PYF), the defending champion. She had improved her personal best to over three metres in the Oceania Regional Championships in Apia in June, and was expected to break her own Games Record of 2.95m - but it was not to be. Having the gold medal safely in her keeping with a clearance at 2.60m, Dolores raised the bar to 2.80m, but in the wet and windy conditions was unable to clear that height. No matter - she had successfully defended her title and had the first medal for French Polynesia in Athletics. Second was Mondy Laigle (NCL – 2.55m) and the bronze medal went to Lucie Tepea (PYF – 2.50m).
An unfortunate accident on the first jump of the Men’s Pole Vault competition by Reginald Monagi (PNG) delayed the start of the competition. It took a long time to assess that he did not have a spinal injury as the medicos carefully extracted him from the scene. We later heard that he did not have any serious injury and he was already talking about making a more auspicious real entry into the Games in Monday’s Decathlon.
With Reginald safely out of the way, the competition in earnest took place. It did not take long to see that Eric Reuillard (NCL) was in fine form. He was clearing each height by very large margins. Luckily for him, and his two team-mates, the rain slowly cleared and much better conditions prevailed for the rest of the night.
True to pre-Games form, Jean-Bernard Harper (NCL) equaled his season best of 4.00m to claim the bronze medal, and Laurent Honore (NCL) also equaled his season personal best to jump 4.20m and claim the silver medal. Eric, however, was in great form and once he knew he had the gold safely in his keeping he equaled his yearly best of 4.80m and then went on to equal the Games Record of 5.00m, created in 1989 by Thibault Cattiau (PYF) at the Tongan Mini Games. He was unable to better that height, with three unsuccessful attempts at 5.10m, but he and his compatriots had created another medal sweep for the host nation and they had much to celebrate. Celebrations will not be too intense for Eric as he has the Decathlon (for which he is also favourite) on Monday morning. After the event Eric said that he hoped he would be OK in the event, but he was “getting old”, but we will have nothing of that as he is still a youthful 31 years of age!
On hand to congratulate the winner, and also feel some consolation that his name is still in the record books, was Thibault Cattiau.
On the day before he competition began the officials held a minute of silence for the passing of New Caledonia great, Rocky Vaitanaki, who sadly passed away in France two days earlier. Rocky, (only 38 years of age) was a French Shot Put Champion and won the South Pacific Games gold medals for the Shot in 1995 (Tahiti) and 1999 (Guam), and the gold in the Mini-SPG in the Discus in 1993 (Port Vila). Oceania Athletics Association sends it condolences to Rocky’s family and friends and to the New Caledonian Ligue.
Article by Bob Snow. courtesy of Oceania Athletics