Over the water the sailing competition on Aitutaki Lagoon came to an end with a gold medal for Manihiki’s super-sailor Helema Williams and a bronze for team-mate Teau McKenzie in the Laser Radial individual class. New Caledonia’s Gaela Machal won the silver.

In the Laser Standard individual class Tahiti’s Jessee Besson won gold while Junior Charlie (CI)  narrowly won silver ahead of Taua Henry (CI) with the bronze.

In the Hobie Cat individual class New Caledonia’s Chichemanian and Rolland won gold, while Fiji took silver (Philp and Dugdale) and bronze (Southwick and Miller).

There were more medals for the Cook Islands in the team events.

In the Laser Radial class the Cook Islands won gold ahead of Samoa and New Caledonia.

It was gold again for the Cooks in the Laser Standard class with silver going to Samoa and bronze to Fiji.

In the Hobie Cat 16 class New Caledonia won gold, Fiji silver and the Cook Islands picked up bronze.

Back on Rarotonga, the table tennis singles came to an end with Vanuatu again showing their strength. Yoshua Shing took the men’s singles gold ahead of Fiji and Tahiti while it was a clean sweep in the women’s singles with Vanuatu claiming all three medals. Priscila Tommy added the individual gold to her women’s team gold.

Brittany Teei and Kairangi Vano are all smiles after winning the women's double gold medal

Tennis proved to be another gold mine for the Cook Islands.

First up Kairangi Vano won the singles gold beating Elodie Dietrich-Rogge of New Caledonia in a final that went to three sets (6/2, 1/6, 7/5).

Brittany Teei won the bronze, defeating Steffie Carruthers of Samoa.

Kairangi and Brittany were both back on the court a short while later beating Elodie Dietrich-Rogge and Meryl Pydo (NC)  6/4  6/3 for another gold medal.

Kairangi must have been exhausted by now but she then appeared in the bronze medal mixed doubles playoff with partner Bret Baudinet. That game was won by Samoa. New Caledonia won gold and Samoa also took the silver.

Meanwhile in the Telecom Sports Arena squash and weightlifting medals were being decided.

The squash men’s singles champion is Michael Rucklinger of Papua New Guinea. New Caledonia won silver and bronze.

It was Papua New Guinea again in the women’s singles and another gold for Barbara Stubbings to add to her women’s team gold. New Caledonia and Samoa won silver and bronze respectively.

Weightlifting medals were won in the men’s 94kg category (gold to Kiribati’s David Katoatau) and the men’s 105kg category (another gold for Kiribati – Meameaa Thomas).

In the women’s +75kg category Ele Opeloge first set a new games record and then a new Commonwealth record to take the gold medal.

The final category was the men’s +105kg. Nauru’s Itte Detenamo was the clear winner of the gold medal but the Cook Islands’ Sam Pera scored the silver.

It was a disappointing day for the Cook Islands on the rugby field

The rugby sevens tournament began today on the BCI stadium field with ten teams striving for the top spots.

It was a disappointing day for the Cook Islands who started with a win against Wallis and Futuna, then lost to Niue, beat Tahiti and finally lost to Fiji. They are now in the plate competition and out of the medal hunt.

The flying Fijians are undefeated in pool A and have yet to have a point scored against them!

The same is true for Samoa in pool B and these two teams look to be heading for a gold/silver clash that should give spectators a feast of top class rugby sevens.

The games get going at midday on Friday and, after what should be an exciting afternoon of sport, the medal presentation will be followed by the closing ceremony.