Tania Tan celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win the gold medal in the women’s 5000m event and set a new record Monday in the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, the Solomon Islands.
TANIA Tan not only won a gold medal for the CNMI on Monday, she also set a new Pacific Games record in the women’s 5000m distance with a time of 18:08.69.
“I was actually pretty relaxed before the race,” she told Variety. “I was super excited to race because the stadium is so nice. I’m just a girl who loves to run so I just wanted to go out there and have fun,” she added.
The 22-year-old athlete was ahead by more than 30 seconds, beating Scholastica Herman (18:38.93) of Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia’s Deborah Koboer (19:03.46).
“It was honestly so surreal — a memorable one for sure,” Tan said. “I felt happy not only for myself, but for everyone back home in the CNMI. But I think it was even more surreal when I got my medal and then the whole stadium stood up as they played the CNMI anthem. I think there had to be at least a thousand people, so it was crazy.”
Tan said she wasn’t aware she had broken the record until Tuesday morning. “I didn’t even know…until this morning while we were at breakfast, but I’m extremely honored!” she added.
Sharon Firisua of the Solomon Islands held the previous record of 18:20.09 in the 2015 Pacific Games while Christina Wicker of Palau held the record of 18:51.75 in the 2014 Micro Games in Pohnpei.
