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Erin, Koime top 2008 Grand Prix points race
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Posted on Jul 01 2008
Frederic Erin of New Caledonia and Mae Koime of Papua New Guinea headlined the top athletes of the 2008 Oceania Championships and 2008 Oceania Grand Prix held from June 21 and 28 at the Oleai Track and Field.
After five days of competition, the best three events for each of the Grand Prix athletes were selected and using the IAAF scoring tables and extra points for winning events, Erin and Komei topped their respective divisions with 1,040 and 1,228 points, respectively.
Erin earned points for his 7.50m and 7.63m performances in the long jump as well as the 15.41m he registered in the triple jump.
“It is good to see a field event specialist coming out at the top of the list. Frederic has been a stellar performer in Pacific Island Athletics since he made his first appearance for New Caledonia at the South Pacific Games in 1997. He is the Pacific Islands’ record holder for the long jump with a leap of 8.09m—a mark which was the French junior record at the time,” noted the OAA website.
Other elite athletes that joined Erin in the Grand Prix men’s rankings were Mowen Boino of PNG(1,158 points), Isoa Me of Fiji (1,092), Aunese Curreen of Samoa (1,058), Daniel Kilama of New Caledonia (1,019), and Isireli Naikelekelevesi of Fiji (998).
Koime, meanwhile, took the top spot for the women after her 11.7 in the 100m, 24.04 in the 200m, and 11.66 in the 100m trumped her closest pursuers.
Finishing below Komei in the women’s Grand Prix rankings were four other PNG athletes—Toea Wisil (1,154 points), Salome Dell (1,146), Sharon Kwarula (1.084), and Betty Burua (1,069). Makelesi Tumalevu of Fiji came in fifth with 1.073 points.
“It was a dominant performance by the PNG women who have been performing well all year. Koime has an Olympic B-Qualifying performance of 11.37 seconds to her credit and is moving back to that level in the run-up to the Beijing Games. The elite PNG athletes now move to South East Queensland for more competition and efforts to improve their 2008 rankings and rewrite some of the PNG national records,” said the OAA.
