Pohnpei athletes return home to heroes’ welcomes
- Details
- Category: Sports
- Published: Monday, 13 August 2018 07:35
- Written by Bill Jaynes
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By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
August 3, 2018
Pohnpei—Pohnpei’s athletes who participated in the Micronesian Games in Yap received heroes’ welcomes as they returned. Hundreds of people carrying banners and cheering wildly welcomed the athletes as they arrived at the airport, and then followed them through town in happy cheering motorcades.
After the last of the athletes arrived today, all of the athletes paraded through town to the government complex where the State sponsored a huge party for them.
The Pohnpei athletes performed very well at the games. Though in terms of gold medals they came in fourth place with a total of 18, they tied with Palau for first place in terms of total medals earned with 70. 33 of those medals were silver medals and 19 were bronze.
Palau won the games with a total of 32 gold medals. The Republic of Marshall Islands was tied with Guam with 29 gold medals each but RMI had 17 silver medals while Guam had 12, putting RMI in second place.
CNMI was in fifth place with nine gold medals, followed by Yap with five. Chuuk also earned five gold medals. Kirabati and Nauru each had two gold medals. While Kosrae did not earn any gold medals they did earn a total of 14 medals, four of which were silver.
In athletics competitions, Pohnpei’s athletes brought home three gold medals, eight silver medals and seven bronze medals.
Pohnpei’s baseballers brought home gold, the first time for a Pohnpei team to medal in a very long time.
Pohnpei’s basketball team came home with bronze medals.
Pohnpei men brought home gold and bronze medals for Micronesian All Around. Pohnpei women brought home gold and silver in the event.
Kestra Aileen Kihleng brought home a very respectable bronze medal for the 2.5 km open water swimming event. It was not only Kihleng’s second ever open water swimming event but also only her second long distance swim competition of any kind. She also came in at a respectable fourth place in the 5K open water swim.
Defending soccer champions, Pohnpei again brought home the gold.
Taylor Paul won a bronze medal for individual spear fishing and Pohnpei’s spearfishing team brought home silver.
In table tennis the men’s team brought silver. Men’s doubles also earned silver, and John Thomsin brought bronze in singles.
Pohnpei women brought silver in Va’a while the men brought bronze.
Pohnpei’s weightlifters and wrestlers brought home an impressive number of medals in a variety of event. Weightlifters brought home four gold medals, 10 silver medals, and two bronze. Wrestlers brought home seven gold medals, 11 silver medals, and three bronze.
Complete results for the Micro Games can be found at http://websites.sportstg.com/medal.cgi?mt=28&pID=1 .
The next Micro Games will be in RMI in 2022.
