Swimming comp heats up on Day 2

Competition in the pool at the 12th Oceania Swimming Championships continues to heat up.

The finals for Day 2 was on fire on Wednesday night, as the qualifying swimmers raced to beat their preliminary times, and pile on the medals at the end of the race.

The finals began with the 50m backstroke. New Zealand topped the race with gold in the women’s event, and also maintained two wins in the men’s event.

Throughout the next six events, the big guns Australia and New Zealand challenged their smaller island competitors well.

Teams like Fiji, Hawaii and Samoa had some pretty strong swimmers in the likes of Moana Wind, Taichi Vakasama, and Epeli Rabua, who were great in the 100m breaststroke.

PNG was represented in 8 of the 11 events.

The PNG crowd was up standing during the 50m backstroke B finals when Livingstone Aika finished first, clocking in 29.61, ahead of his preliminary timing of 30.13 seconds.

In the 100 Freestyle B finals, Sam Seghers stole the show finishing 52.28, ahead of his preliminary heat timing of 53.19.

It was all the more exciting in the 4 by 50 mixed medley. PNG put up a good race, settling for 6th place with 1 minute 59 seconds.

Meantime, New Zealand leads the medal tally with 13 gold, followed by Australia with 7 and Samoa with 3.

In the Islands medal tally, Hawaii has been awarded 6 gold so far, 3 to Samoa and 1 each to Cook Islands, Fiji and Guam. PNG has 3 silver and one bronze.

Author: 
Salome Vincent