Weightlifting adds another bronze to NMI medal haul
Weightlifting contributed another medal to Team Marianas’ haul, as Leowell Cristobal claimed bronze in the men’s 67-kg clean & jerk at the continuation of the weightlifting competition in the 2023 Pacific Games yesterday in Honiara, the Solomon Islands.
Cristobal traveled to Honiara from Florida to represent the Northern Mariana Islands anew and made the long trip worth it with his podium finish in the highly competitive men’s 67-kg class. Cristobal also suited up for Team Marianas in the 2022 Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games and notched a silver medal in the clean & jerk.
With the 24-year-old’s bronze medal on Day 2 of the weightlifting competition, Team Marianas now has five medals. Cristobal’s fellow weightlifter, Raymond Santos, delivered the first three for NMI with a gold in the snatch, silver in total weight, and bronze in clean & jerk in the men’s 55-kg class contest last Monday morning. Swimmer Isaiah Aleksenko gave the NMI its fourth medal last Monday night when he placed third in the 100m butterfly event (55.38 seconds) behind New Caledonia’s Ethan Demesnil (54.82 seconds) and Thibaut Mary (55.29 seconds).
Still in weightlifting, Riella Ichiou will compete this Wednesday late afternoon at 5:30pm, while Angel San Nicolas and Antonete Labausa will take the stage on Thursday. Joey Colisao will be the last weightlifter to compete for Team Marianas, as he will have his event this Friday.
3 swimmers march to finals; PBs set
Maria Batallones, Juhn Tenorio, and Taiyo Akimaru moved into the finals of their respective events.
Batallones raced in the women’s 50m backstroke and finished fifth in the preliminaries Tuesday morning to earn a spot in the finale, which took place last night. Batallones timed in at 35.09 seconds, surpassing her personal best of 35.96 seconds.
In the men’s 200m individual medley, Akimaru took the last finals berth in the event after submitting 2:24.65 and defeating seven other swimmers.
In the men’s 50m backstroke, Tenorio was tied for fifth place with New Caledonia’s Chrissander Cerda to make it to the finale. Tenorio and Cerda recorded identical times of 27.56 seconds and the former eclipsed his PB mark of 28.13 seconds.
Shoko Litulumar and Frances Raho also competed in the 50m backstroke with the former setting a new PB (33.77 seconds) and the latter clocking in at 35.23 seconds.
Golfers hit course; NMI netters return to play
The opening round of the four-round golf competition kicks off today at the Honiara Golf Club.
Joseph Sasamoto will be the first to tee-off for the NMI, as he is scheduled to join three others in the 7:40am tee off at hole No. 6. He will be followed by Ben Jones Jr. at 7:50am, Franco Santos at 8:10am, and the NMI’s lone female golfer Zhimin Jin at 12:10. Joe “Kamikaze’ Camacho will tee off from the first hole at 8:10am.
In tennis, singles and doubles events will start today, but the draws have yet to be posted at press time. The NMI’s Colin Ramsey, Moris Villanueva, Nason Wessel, and June Yu are all competing in the men’s singles and will also play in the doubles.
Meanwhile, New Caledonia has overtaken host Solomon Islands in first place in the medal standings. As of 6:30pm Tuesday, New Caledonia has collected 27 medals (10 gold, 8 silvers, and 9 bronze). Solomons dropped to third with its 5-8-6 tally behind Australia (7-5-1). Team Mariana, with its 1-1-4 haul, is still in the Top 10, joining Marshall Islands (5-3-0), Papua New Guinea (4-4-5), Samoa (4-1-1), Guam (3-0-0), Tahiti (2-8-8), and Cook Islands (1-0-0).
Team Marianas’ participation in the 2023 Pacific Games is supported by the Joeten Daidai Foundation, Triple J, Crowne Plaza Resort, IT&E, IP&E, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, Mobil, Tan Holdings, and McDonald’s of Guam & Saipan. (PR)
Medal standing
