29 Aug 2011

Sport: Tahiti sweep Va'a gold

5:03 pm on 29 August 2011

Tahiti have won the first gold medals at this year's Pacific Games after sweeping all of today's Va'a races in Anse Vata.

The French territory is the reigning world champion and won ten gold medals at the 2007 Games in Apia.

Vinnie Wylie reports from Noumea.

"After the early morning heats the men's and women's teams from Tahiti were too strong for their rivals in the V6 1500m races. The women's 500m team quickly followed suit, holding out New Caledonia and Cook Islands to claim another gold in the sport's premier sprint distance, before their male counterparts made it a clean-sweep on day one of competition. One member of the victorious 1500m crew, Teihotu Dubois, says while it may have looked easy preparing for this year's Games has been a challenge. 'We had only two weeks training together but we train all the year but together only two weeks. So we start quickly then we keep synchronised and finish'. Teihotu Dubois says Tahiti is aiming to win all 12 gold medals in this year's Va'a competition, which continues tomorrow before the 20 and 30 kilometre marathon races on Friday and Saturday."