It was raining gold for Team Samoa at the Pacific Mini Games in Saipan, Northern Marianas with the athletes bagging 15 medals in one day to place the country sixth on the overall medal tally. 

After a week since the games started, the Samoan athletes made up for the lost time by scooping 15 medals comprising 7 gold, 4 silver and four bronze medals in one day. 

Samoa is now behind Guam, which is placed fifth on the medal tally after getting 9 gold, while Papua New Guinea is leading the Mini Games with 19 gold medals ahead of Northern Marianas and Australia.

A press statement issued by the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (S.A.S.N.O.C.) gave details of the medals won by the athletes on Wednesday. 

For the weightlifting squad, a total of 3 gold medals were won in a well fought battle in the 81kg women’s category by golden girl Faustina Tupuola Niusila Opeloge. 

Faustina also achieved snatched the Oceania Youth Record, winning golds in the Snatch 90kg, clean & jerk 108kg and a total record for Oceania of 198kg. 

The young star won the Commonwealth gold medal ranking in her achievements, the statement from S.A.S.N.O.C. confirmed.

Still on the women’s division for weightlifting, Avatu Opeloge, 18 years old won 3 bronze medals in the 76kg women’s category in the snatch, clean and jerk and bronze in the total division. 

Another successful lifter was Iuniarra Sipaia in the 87+kg who won gold in the clean and jerk and overall took gold. 

Lesila Fiapule managed to take gold for the 87+kg division in the snatch, silver in the clean and jerk, and rounded it off with an overall silver. 

The 16-year-old Tovio Ah Chong in the 81kg division set a new Oceania Youth record with a 140kg clean and jerk. 

On the tracks and field events, the 23-year-old Donny Masele Tuimaseve managed to throw a 69 meter throw in javelin winning gold for the team. 

As for the track events, the 22-year-old Pesamino Iakopo won silver in the 100m Men’s finals, followed by 19-year-old Johnny Key winning the bronze medal.

S.A.S.N.O.C. said the competition continues with more promising results to come.

“We take this opportunity to acknowledge our sponsors namely IBFC Samoa, Samoa Tourism Authority (Beautiful Samoa), and in association with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture, and the National Bank of Samoa,” the Samoa team noted.