Jacque Wonenberg beat Guam’s Andria Cruz in the women’s division of 400-meter hurdles to win the first gold medal in the Micronesian pool. She completed it in 72.97 seconds against Cruz’ 1:27.58.
Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel turned up to be the fastest in the men’s 400-meter hurdles beating fellow NMI athlete, Clayton Kenty and Guam’s Michael Herreros. Kabriel finished the race in 64.87 seconds against Kenty’s 66.73 for silver medal and Herreros’ 68.95 for bronze.
The NMI women’s team also defeated Guam in the 4×400 meters relay to win more gold medals. They finished it in 4:29.31 minutes ahead of Guam’s team who came in at 4:39.09.
Kabiriel settled for second place for the silver medal as Guam’s Toby Castro beat him by two minutes in the men’s 5,000 meter run. Kabiriel crossed the finished line at 19:09.81 as he came behind Castro who made it in 17: 11.03 minutes.
Matthew Mancao came in third at 20:15.39 for the bronze medal.
Coach Elias Rangamar commented it was a new experience for Matthew running in the cold weather. His throat was drying up and his nose and mouth were numb that he even “contemplated” of quitting.
Trevor Ogumoro who was battling already flu when the competition started, still managed to leap 1.6 meters and win the third place to get the bronze medal in the men’s high jump.
Yvonne Bennett was in a three-way tie with Guam’s Naome Burk and Nauru’s Lovelite Detenamo all finishing the 100-meter sprint in 13.39 seconds. Burk got the gold.
Had Bennett leaned over, she would have won the gold medal, Rangamar said.
Bennett’s twin sister, Yvette finished fourth.
In men’s 100-meter sprint that was participated by 47 sprinters, Tyrone Omar finished 14th in the final round with 11.51 seconds.
This, according to Rangamar was a “respectable time and margin” considering that Omar was plagued by a hamstring injury. Omar seriously thought of pulling out just minutes before the race but he eventually pulled it at the finish line, and realized it was all worth it.
