SAMOA 2019: Australia has ended their Samoa 2019 Pacific Games campaign on a high, with an athletics gold and sailing bronze on the final day of competition.

Ian Dewhurst ran 50.85 in the men’s 400m hurdles final to take out the gold, ahead of Papua New Guinea’s Daniel Baul (51.80) and Ephraim Lerkin.

While Dewhurst said his time was slower than he hoped due to the tropical weather, he has loved his Pacific Games experience and the gold medal is the icing on the cake.

“I’ve flown over from Perth which has consistently been about 15 degrees for the past couple of months, so being in the hot, sticky, humid conditions hasn’t been easy, so I’m glad to have had that final and looking forward to heading home for some rest and recovery,” the 28-year-old said.

“This is a very special event, it’s very important to the Pacific nations, so it’s a great honour to come out and run here and do well.

“It’s been great to network and connect with everyone and hopefully it lifts the profile of the sport across all the Pacific Nations.

“These Games are very different, and I have to admit – probably the most passionate I’ve been to. Whenever there has been a Samoan in a heat or final, the crowd is enormously loud - and I selfishly try to channel that into my personal performance - but it’s really special to be a part of that.”

Unfortunately, Australia’s triple jumper Emmanuel Fakiye didn’t have the day he’d hoped for, jumping three fouls in Friday’s competition and bringing to an end to his Pacific Games run.

Sailing

Tasmania’s Will Sargent has picked up third in the Men’s Laser Sailing, after a race-off against Eroni Leilua from Samoa.

Sargent has been the king of consistency over the five-day sailing regatta, placing second in every one of his races. There have been two fleets running simultaneously in this competition, so Sargent was set up to battle it out for third place against home favourite Leilua, who also finished second in his fleet.

Sargent actually broke his second-place tradition to win the first finals race of the day, however the gap between him and first and second place was too wide. He knew the 14th, and final after five days would be his final shot at a medal.

“It was pretty tense today, I got him [Leilua] on the start and then he came back and we switched leads a couple of times, so it was pretty hectic,” Sargent said of his final race today.

“[Leilua’s] been training in Auckland for the past 19 years and he’s also trying to qualify for Tokyo, so to get the win over him and to be pretty close to another two of the top-50 in the world, I’m pretty stoked!”

The 18-year-old has been in Samoa for two weeks now, after watching his Australian teammate Paris van den Herik win bronze in the women’s Laser Radial in the first week.

“There’s been a lot of emotion over the entire regatta, it’s been a long two weeks, but it’s nice to finally let it all out,” he said.

“It’s been really cool racing here, it’s my first ever time in the Olympic class and I just couldn’t be happier. It’s a perfect start for the next step in my career.”

Sargent said the experiences have ignited the fire in him to chase the Olympic dream.

“Hopefully one day – 2024, or 2028 maybe. I think Tokyo is a little out of reach but [the Olympics] are definitely the aim.”

Mixed Hobie Cat team Tom Dawson and Sarah Hoffman finished their event in fourth place overall on Day 11. Considering they were competing in an unfamiliar boat class against people twice their age, they were really pleased with the outcome.

“We were racing against really experienced teams, of two male athletes who were twice as old as us, and in a different boat to what we’re used to, so we’re really happy with fourth!” Hoffman said.

“We had no expectations coming here because we didn’t know what the standard was going to be here, we didn’t even know we would be versing all male teams.

“This competition wasn’t about a placing for us, but more about getting racing skills and more experiencing in different fleets, which we definitely achieved.”

Australia has wrapped up the Samoa 2019 Pacific Games with a total of 56 medals: 33 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze.

However, medals aside, the team has bonded with the Pacific nations and had international multi-sport Games experience that will serve them long into their athletic careers.

Catch up on all the daily results and news from the past 11 days HERE.

Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au