{"id":402712,"date":"2023-12-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=402712"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Awesome-incredible-thankful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Awesome-incredible-thankful\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Awesome, incredible, thankful\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONIARA, Solomon Islands\u2014<\/strong>The 2023 Pacific Games are just about over but Team NMI is hanging with the big boys of the Pacific.<\/p>\n

With an impressive medal haul so far of 12 medals\u20145 gold, 1 silver, and 6 bronze\u2014it has far surpassed its tally from the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa of four medals.<\/p>\n

Chef de mission Nick Gross said on Wednesday night that the medal haul so far has been \u201cawesome,\u201d the team\u2019s performance \u201cincredible\u201d and is \u201cthankful\u201d to all the sponsors that assisted the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say that it was unexpected because I know the hard work that the entire team\u2014all 10 of them\u2014that we got representing the Northern Marianas. I know that it\u2019s been months of hard work, it\u2019s been dedication to training,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for the sponsors, he said, \u201cthanks so much to the sponsors so that we weren\u2019t out shaking the tin jar looking for funding\u2014so much thanks to them so that we could really focus on the task of training\u2014so that we could bring this medal haul for everybody to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIncredible\u2014the coaches and the federations that were behind it and Northern Marianas Sports Association\u2014everybody is an integral part to the success of Team Northern Marianas and I just thank everybody for all the hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gross said that it\u2019s been difficult from the heat, the dorm living, transportation, \u201cand the list goes on and on, but to be able to push that aside and compete at the level that we have and have the medal haul that is going, we\u2019re not done!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping and praying for some more and so keep rocking Team NMI and thanks for everybody\u2019s support back home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Athletics, va\u2019a, and beach volleyball have yet to wrap up their competition.<\/p>\n

Va\u2019a competitions end today, while beach volleyball, if they make it to the finals, ends tomorrow. Athletics ends tomorrow as well with two-time Pacific Games gold medalist Tania Tan running the half marathon in the morning.<\/p>\n

The five gold medals were from Ray Santos of weightlifting, Isaiah Aleksenko of swimming, Christina Tudela from bodybuilding, and Tan from athletics.<\/p>\n

The lone silver medal was from Santos as well. Santos also bagged another bronze, while one bronze was from Aleksenko, two was from the men\u2019s relay swim team, one was from weightlifting\u2019s Leowell Cristobal, and the other was from bodybuilding\u2019s Davy Laxa.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, the athletes in the athletes\u2019 village of SINU Kukum were treated to a farewell visit by the hosts and Solo, the 2023 Pacific Games mascot.<\/p>\n

It was two hours of entertainment, dance, and food, and at the end, gifts were given to each athlete.<\/p>\n

Some members of Team NMI, Wallis & Futuna, Tahiti, Tonga, and others joined in on the dance in the middle of the pavilion as the crowd cheered, laughed, and danced the night away.<\/p>\n

Colin Ramsey, tennis player\/coach, said that the night\u2019s entertainment was great. He liked the performances and the songs played and how everyone got together as one.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Games closing ceremony is set for tomorrow night and the team is scheduled to depart on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tania Tan, right, poses with Solo, the mascot for the 2023 Pacific Games, before she races in the 5,000m run last Monday.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
\n
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Tania Tan is seen before hugging Team NMI chef de mission Nick Gross after her gold medal run in the 10,000m event Wednesday evening at the National Sports Stadium. Tan previously won gold in the 5,000m race and made NMI\u2019s medal tally 12\u20145 gold, 1 silver, 6 bronze\u2014as of yesterday.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONIARA, Solomon Islands\u2014The 2023 Pacific Games are just about over but Team NMI is hanging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}