Tahiti's golden run continues at Palau Mini Games

The Tahitians have opened a wider gap between themselves and the rest of the pack on the medal table at the Pacific Mini Games.

They sit at the top of the medal tally with 33 gold medals, 17 silver and six bronze medals.

Samoa now has nine gold medals to its name, while Fiji and Australia have jumped into third and fourth spots respectively, with six gold medals each.

The Australians won their first medals in weightlifting, with Jianne Gungon taking home three in the women's 48kg and Brenna Kean adding two more in the women's 58kg category.

Fiji added gold medals from va'a and swimming.

Weightlifting

Papua New Guinea's Dika Toua claimed two gold and one silver in the women's 53-kilogram category at the weightlifting event.

Her teammate Idau Vagi also delivered a strong performance, securing three bronze in the same category.

Dika's sister Thelma won three bronze medlas in the women's 48kg category.

Their teammate Morea Baru claimed three gold medals in the men's 65kg division.

Team Nauru claimed their first three gold medals in the weightlifting competition when Shadrach Cain won all three events in the men's 60kg division.

He lifted 102 kilograms in the snatch and 130kg in the clean and jerk, totalling 232kg.

His team-mate Johannes Adam claimed three silver, with a total lift of 229kg.

Swimming

Isaiah Aleksenko of the Northern Mariana Islands claimed his fourth swimming gold medal on Wednesday.

Having won gold medals in the men's 50 metres backstroke, 100m individual medley and 100m butterfly on Monday, he added the 50m butterfly gold on Tuesday.

Fijians David Young and Hansel McCaig won silver and bronze respectively.

Fiji's Samuel Yalimaiwai claimed his second gold medal at the Games, winning the men's 100m breaststroke.

He won gold in a time of 1 minute 1.47 seconds ahead of Tahiti's Nael Roux and Fijian teammate Don Younger.

His teammate Kelera Mudunasoko also claimed her second gold, winning the women's 100m breaststroke final.

Samoa's Paige Schendelaar-Kemp was another double gold medallist in the pool, claiming the women's 50m butterfly on Wednesday to add to her 100m butterfly win on Tuesday.

Tahiti pair Deotille Videau and Heimaru-Iti Bonnard were second and third in the 50m butterfly.

The Samoans claimed two more gold in the pool, with Nafanua Hamilton winning the women's 200m backstroke while brother Solomona Hamilton secured the men's 200m backstroke title.

Tahiti won gold in the 4x200m relays in both the men's and women's categories.

Va'a

Fiji's Elenoa Vateitei claimed gold in the women's V1-marathon 16-kilometre race, stopping the clock at 1 hour, 46 minutes and six seconds, ahead of Tahiti's Ranitea Mamatui and Samoa's Anne Cairns.

Tahiti continued their golden run in the sport, winning gold in the women's and men's V6 1500m races, and the men's V1-marathon 16km event, where Temoana Taputu claimed another gold.

Table tennis

There was action in the women's table tennis competition on Wednesday.

Tahiti and PNG recorded two wins each on the day, including winning their semi-final matches.

The Tahitians defeated Marshall Islands 3-0 and then accounted for Palau in their semifinal clash, also winning 3 sets to nil.

PNG beat Nauru in their round robin game and then pipped Vanuatu 3-2 in the semi-final.

Tahiti then defeated PNG 3-0 in the final to claim gold while Vanuatu pipped Palau 3-2 for the bronze.

New Caledonia and Tahiti set up a final clash in the men's competition, after they won their first matches.

The New Caledonians proved too strong for Nauru winning 3-1 then scored the same against Vanuatu in their semi-final clash.

Tahiti defeated Marshall islands 3-0 and PNG by the same score in their semifinal, and went on to beat New Caledonia 3-1 in the final.

PNG claimed the bronze with a 3-1 win over Vanuatu.

The story of the evening belonged to Fijian pair Akanisi Latu and Merewalesi Roden, who won the gold medal in the women's para category, when they beat Tahiti 3-2 in a tightly contested final.

Baseball and softball

With wash-outs on Monday and Tuesday, baseball action finally got underway at the Nippon Baseball Stadium on Wednesday, with a tightly contested Micronesian clash between Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands (NMI) in the men's competition.

NMI won 7-6 before the home team Palau thrashed the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) 7-1 in the second game.

Guam came back to thrash Fiji 10-0.

Meanwhile in softball, the Palau women's team got their first win, in a 5-2 scoreline over Marshall Islands, having lost to FSM on Monday.

American Samoa defeated Guam 10-3 while PNG handed Marshall Islands their third loss at the event, with a big 12-1 scoreline.

FSM then knocked over the NMI 9-8.

The two undefeated teams so far are American Samoa and PNG.

3x3 basketball

As predicted pre-Games, the competition for the three gold medals at stake in the shortened version of the game has been exciting.

Palau has four wins and Fiji and Marshall Islands three each in the Oceania 1 pool.

On Wednesday Fiji defeated Vanuatu 20-10 and Guam 17-15, before being beaten 20-19 by home team Palau.

Palau beat the Marshall Islands (18-16) and PNG (21-17), while Marshall Islands defeated PNG 21-16.

Oceania 2 has Tahiti leading with four wins, with MNI at second spot with three wins so far.

Tahiti defeated FSM 21-13 but lost to Solomon Islands 16-21, while NMI pipped Tonga 21-19 and Samoa 21-18 but then went down to Solomon Islands, 21-13.

Tonga beat Samoa 21-13.

Day 4

There will be some interesting competition again for medals when competition resumes on Thursday.

Swimming, weightlifting, archery and table tennis will see medal events during the day.

Beach volleyball, 3x3 basketball, volleyball, and softball will continue.