Photo: Tahiti’s double oe vaka gold medallist Hinatea Bernadino enjoys the taste of gold. 09092574

FIJI leads the medal tally after day five of the 2009 Pacific Mini Games.
It boasts 14 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals.
Tahiti is in second with 11 gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals.
New Caledonia is on third with eight gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals.
Host Cook Islands made a huge leap yesterday to seven golds after winning a massive four gold medals in golf, two in bowls and one in touch rugby, plus five silver and four bronze medals.
Fiji’s athletics team has been dominating the track since Tuesday and earned most of their medals from there.
Today, Team Fiji eyes to claim the remaining medals on stake to cement their position as the top athletics team in the Pacific.
In the first medal playoffs yesterday, New Caledonia’s Yorick Metzdorf won the men’s high jump event with a height of 1.95 metres.
Kavita Maharaj of Fiji, Cedric Oblet of New Caledonia and Tahiti’s Terani Faremiro snatched a brace.
Maharaj claimed the women’s 1500m race with a time of 5 minutes 04.43s in a closely contested event.
Oblet won the men’s 5000m race after clocking 15 minutes 53.92s.
Terani Faremiro won the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 15.14s.
Tonga’s Inoke Finau took the men’s 110m hurdles. He clocked 15.27s.
Daniel Kilama of New Caledonia won gold in the men’s shot put event with a power throw of 16.17m.
PMG record holder Shaka Sola of Samoa won the silver medal with a distance of 16.16m.
Fiji’s Soko Salaniqiqi won the gold in the women’s heptathlon after achieving maximum points of 4745 from the seven sports required in this event.
The athletic events finish today at the BCI Stadium. - Rashneel Kumar: Cook Islands News