By Nazario Rodriguez Jr.
Horizon news staff

With the nation continues to realize the importance of sports activities especially for the young generation and the government’s giving more support to the Palau National Olympic Committee (PNOC) and its member federations, the local athletes showed steady progress in their performances both at home and in international competitions.
It is thus interesting to review some of the major events that hogged the headlines of the sports pages in the year that was.
It is worth mentioning the sterling performances of team sports as well as individual athletes like Micronesia’s sprint queen Ngerak Florencio, wrestler Elgin Elwais, baseball’s Ty Saiske, basketball’s Lyndon Ngiramolau to name a few.
The sports arena was not spared from several controversies such as involving technical officials and referees in the Palau Major League, the ‘red zone’ policy that bothered the members of Team Palau to the Micronesian games and other issues.
This two-part of a series article will try to relive the thrill of triumph of the local athletes in the year that was as well the agony of defeat that went with it.
ATHLETICS
In January, Hideki Yukihira and Sarah Klain ruled the men and women’s divisions, respectively, of the 10km walkathon in commemoration of the Fifth Anniversary of the Palau International Coral Reef Center. Husband and wife Joe and Stef Thompson won the men and women’s divisions in the 5km category.
Derbai Meyar won the women’s singles of the kayak races in commemoration with the fifth anniversary celebration of the Palau International Coral Reef Center.
Ngerak Florencio set her personal best time in the century dash as the scholar of the High Performance Training Center in Auckland, New Zealand arrived to represent the State of Peleliu in the Belau Games.
Florencio placed third in a recent tournament at the Ericsson Stadium in Auckland with a time of 12:59 seconds. The time is faster than the national record of 12.64 she herself set last year.
Krista Callinan set a new best time as she ruled the women’s category of third annual Palau Pacific Resort marathon as she covered the 26.2 miles distance from Melekeok Beach to PPR beach with a time of three hours, 58 minutes and three seconds.
SOME 396 running enthusiasts have joined the No tobacco Day 5 km and 10 km walkathon. Nestor Parinas of Surangel and Sons won the 10 km race with a time of 43 minutes and 47 seconds.
Yukinori Watanabe won the 10k run in 2006 Olympic Day run ahead by just three seconds from the same young runner that beat him a week earlier at the same course.
FILIPINO contract worker Nestor Parinas and national athlete Nick Mangham shared the limelight in the fun run activity in connection with the 12th Independence Day Anniversary.
PALAU High School (PHS) compiled a total of 157 points at the conclusion of 2006 Interscholastic League (ISL) High School Division track and field tournament.
Mindszenty High School (MHS) came in second with 114 points while Emmaus High School finished third and last with 29.
NESTOR Parinas made it two-in-a-row as he won the men’s 10k in the Thanksgiving fun walk/run.
BELAU GAMES
KOROR accumulated a total of 129 medals out of the 477 staked in the fifth Belau Games to run away with the overall championship trophy.
Asserting its dominance on home turf, Koror tallied 56-42-31 gold-silver-bronze. That was way ahead of second placer Sonsorol’s 26-27-39 for a total of 92 medals.
Peleliu, which won the overall championship in the last staging of the Games in 2001, settled for third place with 26-28-19 for a total of 73 medals.