Iguel part of 14-man team to Poland

The CNMI’s Jesus Iguel will be part of a 14-person team that the Oceania Athletics Association will be sending in the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships set from July 8 to 11 in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

According to the OAA website, Iguel ran 11.82 (100m) into a slight headwind in the 2008 Oceania Grand Prix. In the 2008 Oceania Championships, he ran two rounds of the 100m in 11.91 and 11.92 plus a lot of relay duties.

The 12th IAAF World Junior Championship will be the first time Iguel will be representing the CNMI in an off-island event for athletics.

Nine of Iguel’s 13 teammates in the Oceania team actually saw action in the recent 2008 Oceania Championships and the 2008 Oceania Grand Prix held here on Saipan from June 21 to 28.

Fiji’s Isoa Me, for instance, registered personal bests in the 200m and 400m in the 2008 Oceania Grand Prix and was involved in an epic 400m race with veteran sprinter Mowen Boino of Papua New Guinea.

Their race went down into the final stretch and resulted in both Me and Boino recording the time of 48.45.

In the 2008 Oceania Championships, Me finished third in the 400m (48.75) and won the gold in the 200m with another great personal best of 21.93. He was also a member of the Fiji 4x100m relay team that won the gold and broke the games record in the heats.

Margaret Satupai of Samoa, for her part, won four gold medals in the under-18 and open divisions of the 2008 Oceania Grand Prix and 2008 Oceania Championships. She won gold with a 14.27m in the shot put and the discus throw by hurling for 46.57m.

On Saipan, Emile Nisap of Vanuatu ran the century dash in 11.81 in the heats and improved that to a 11.71 in the semifinals. He also finished the 200m in a time of 24.12 (better than the 24.7 he recorded a year ago) and participated in Vanuatu’s 4x100m relay.

Papua New Guinea’s Shirley Vunatup, on the other hand, was selected for the World Juniors as a result of her performances in earlier training camps and the East New Britain Inter-Schools Athletics Championships.

On Saipan, Vunatup had time of 13.91 and 13.84 in the 100m and 27.84 and 27.09 in the under-18 200m competitions.

Douglas Schmidt from Palau, meanwhile, is a very versatile athlete. In the Pacific Games in Apia, Douglas ran 2:20.11 in the 800m.

Three months later in the Micronesian Championships, held on Guam, he had improved his 800m time to 2:04.47—to win the gold medal. He also went on to win the 1500m and 3000m.

At the 2008 Oceania Championships he entered in the under-18 division and finished fourth in the 200m (23.50), fourth in the 800m (2:07.10), and second in the 1500m (4:28.68).

Norfolk Island’s Dayne O’Hara last year represented his country at the World Championships in Osaka (100m: 11.86) and the Pacific Games in Apia (100m: 11.94 and 200m: 24.20). In the 2008 Oceania Championships, O’Hara entered both the 100m (11.99) and 200m (24.42)

Guam’s Kenneth Karosich recorded a 24.03 second 200m and 53.72 for the 400m in the 2007 Islands Ranking List, but this year has emerged as primarily a hurdler.

In the 2008 Oceania Championships he ran a good 16.15 [-2.4mps] in the heats of the 110m hurles, and then improved on it to 15.50 [-0.7] in the final. He improved his 400m hurdles time of 58.35 in the heats to a bronze medal-winning 57.02 in the final.

The 110m hurdles race was run over the senior height of 1.06m, while in Bydgosczc the hurdle height will be 99cm.

Several of the Iguel’s teammates in Bydgoszcz, meanwhile, went directly from their home countries and did not compete on Saipan.

Thomas Slowinski, from French Polynesia, has a Polish grandfather. It will be interesting to see the Polish reaction when he arrives.

Last year Slowinski competed in Ostrava where he recorded a time of 11.40 seconds for the 100m. In the Apia Pacific Games, he ran 23.30 for the 200m and participated in Tahit’s 4x100m relay. In 2008, he has run a windy 11.1h 100m, and 23.1 for the 200m.

Adison Alfred from the Solomon Islands, for whom OAA has no 2008 information, is another of the islanders who participated in the World Youth Championships in Ostrava last year. He recorded 11.25 for the 100m there, and two months later was in Apia for the Pacific Games. In Apia he ran the 200m in the time of 22.77 seconds.

Nauru’s Dana Thoma, after many transport and visa difficulties, finally managed to join the main team.

She has not had any 2008 performances in the Islands’ Ranking Lists, but was listed in 2007, with her best performances coming in the Micronesian Championships in Guam in December. Her best was 13.29 seconds in the heats of the 100m, eventually picking up the bronze medal in a time of 13.31.

Paseka Fangupo from Tonga had a very active National Championship program earlier this year. He entered the 100m (11.39), 200m (22.91w), 400m (53.96), 400m hurdles (56.31) and the high jump (1.70m). Last year his best performances were 52.00 for the 400m and 1.75m in the high jump.

American Samoa’s Jeffrey Tago is a bit of a mystery for OAA as no results can be found for him for 2007 and 2008. That is unless he is the same person as Faasolo Tago, who is a thrower who competed in this year’s National Championships.

The Oceania team to the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships will have Janelle Eldridge of Australia serving as manager and two federations have sent accompanying coaches—Jone Delai of Fiji and Jay Antonio of Guam.