The Commonwealth Games have well and truly begun in Glasgow, and it’s been three days of hectic competition, with Pacific athletes displaying their brute strength and prowess.

Scottish Events Campus, the Armadillo and the Hydro came alive with lawn bowls, 3×3 basketball, boxing, netball and weightlifting, while the Tollcross Swimming Centre tested several Pacific athletes’ strength in the pool.

Athletics takes off at the Scotstoun Stadium today at 10am local time.

Weightlifting

The first day of competition did not disappoint, with PNG’s Morea Baru securing a bronze medal in the men’s 65kg division. 

He is the first Pacific Islander to win a medal at this year’s Commonwealth Games and is a consistent performer on the big stage in this category.

Meanwhile, Nauru’s 18-year-old Jo-Beth Deireragea proved that age is just a number, finishing fourth overall in the women’s 48kg division competition, lifting a total of 161kg (70kg snatch and 91kg in clean and jerk) on debut and surpassing her Oceania record of 157kg.

A special sibling moment at the Glasgow Games, Morea’s younger brother Kevau (Baru) also finished sixth overall in the men’s 60kg division on debut, recording a personal best of 225kg total (98kg in snatch and 127kg in clean and jerk).

Boxing

Since boxing began on Friday, multiple boxers from Fiji, Kiribati, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Niue, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu have all competed in their respective weight divisions.

Fiji’s Jasmine Daunakamakama stole the show on debut, defeating her Ghanaian opponent by unanimous decision to qualify for the quarterfinals. She will have an opportunity to secure a medal if she advances from the quarterfinals into the semis.

Men’s featherweight boxers (55kg), Kiribati’s Eriu Temakau and PNG’s Bid Michael Inoino, and PNG’s welterweight boxer (65kg) James Paul all advanced to compete in the Round of 16 Preliminaries; however, they fell short in the quarterfinals. 

Tonga’s heavyweight boxer (80kg) Josh Tonga also advanced to the round of 16 and will compete on Monday (BST).

In the women’s bantamweight division (54kg) round of 16, Samoa’s Danielle Holland went down fighting despite making a strong comeback against her opponent from Mauritius.

Lawn bowls

Lawn bowls was the first sport to begin, hours before the official opening ceremony on Thursday. The first four days started with the men’s singles, women’s pairs sectional play and the para-mix events.

Fiji’s Rajnesh Prasad has so far registered two wins from four in the men’s singles, while 17-year-old Liam Hill from Tonga made a name for himself by registering a win in all his four matches. Cook Islands, Niue and Norfolk Islands have also competed in this category, placing in tough men’s singles matches.

In the women’s pairs, Tonga started well on their first day of competition, with duo Milika Nathan and Paris Baker defeating South Africa before suffering a narrow loss against England. 

Cook Islands, Fiji and Norfolk Islands’ women’s pairs also performed well throughout the last four days.

Swimming

Fiji’s flag bearer David “Tolu” Young is the only Pacific Islander to reach the swimming finals and competed in the men’s 50m freestyle finals against some household names at the Commonwealth Games. 

He recorded a time of 22.18 seconds and placed sixth overall.

In the mixed 4×100-metre freestyle relay, Samoa produced a record-breaking performance, shaving more than four seconds off the national record.

Johann Stickland, Paige Schendelaar-Kemp, Nafanua Hamilton and Christian Toia combined to clock 3 minutes 45.13 seconds, finishing just ahead of Jersey (3:45.26) and the Cook Islands (3:45.81) to come 11th.

Netball

Tongan Tala proudly carried the Pacific on their shoulders as they made their debut at the Glasgow Games despite a heavy loss (38-99) against Oceania sisters, the Australian Diamonds. 

They competed against South Africa, copping another 96-42 loss. They will compete in a round-robin format in the next few days to determine a steady result to reach the finals.

3×3 Basketball

The Tongan women have so far registered two of three wins in their opening pool games on Saturday, defeating Singapore and PNG and losing against New Zealand. 

The Fiji women, on the other hand, made a historic debut, registering their first win against the Cayman Islands despite their losses that followed.

The PNG women are yet to register their first win, while the Fiji men have also been placed in a tough position to fight and stay in the 3×3 competition to reach the finals. 

Despite the mixed results, these four teams are the first to qualify and represent the Oceania Region at the Commonwealth Games.

Original Link: https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/commonwealth-games-wrap-pacific-png-bronze/106961428