Jacko Gill's personal best at Oceania champs

The three-day Oceania Area Championships have just ended here in Rarotonga.
The weather was atrocious for the first day - torrential rain and wind. Not much fun for the athletes.
The other two days were better, still windy but the downpour turned into showers.
The highlight of the championships was the appearance of New Zealand shot putter Jacko Gill. He's had an illustrious career already as a junior with many age-group world bests and gold medals to his name.
Jacko was using the Oceania champs as part of his build-up for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August and must be well satisfied with his performance.  He improved with every throw and his final put of 20.70m was a personal best as well as a new championship record.

Rarotonga International Triathlon 2014

The annual Rarotonga International Triathlon, the twentieth, took place in early May this year.
It was another outstanding success with over 170 competitors, local and overseas, 106 individuals and 27 teams.
Winner was Dave Vernon (NZ) repeating last year's first place, with other previous winners Steve Farrell (NZ) and Yoann Hotellier (Tahiti) second and third respectively.
First three females were Vanessa Woodger, Serena Hunter and Kate Lahart, all local residents.
Local Roland Neururer came in fifth with Geoff Stoddart tenth.
The weather was wet and a bit windy for the swim and cycle but by the time the run started the sun had come out making for a hot final leg.
For more details see Cook Islands News here.
Full results of the tri, the Boiler Swim and the Tour de Raro cycle race are on the RaroTri website
Plenty of photos on the RaroTri Facebook page.

Cook Islands Black Pearls at the Pacific Netball Series

The recent Pacific Netball Series between Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands was a great success and even though our Black Pearls didn't manage a win they improved with every game and came close on several occasions.
Their skills and teamwork kept getting better and they gave the fans some exciting moments - heartstopping even.
If these relative youngsters can stay together and get more quality time on court they have the potential to claw their way back up the netball ladder (once upon a time Cookies were the Queens of Pacific netball!)
After the series coach Trish Wilcox said, “The biggest challenge was the short time frame, coming on board in February with a squad already in place and trying to get them to a fitness level to cope with six games in six days tournament as well as working on the skills and tactics that we would need to be competitive against the other nations.”
Sadly another challenge was dealing with unpleasant criticism from some members of the public over the selection of the final twelve players from a training squad of fourteen.
At a time when we should have been cheering our girls and Netball Cook Islands, they had to deal with a level of negativity towards many of the players and the coach which must have affected team morale.
Well, they overcame that and showed the critics up for the miserable creatures they are - parents and so-called 'friends' included.
We could all learn something from the Fijian community here on Rarotonga.
They were out in full force at every game. They cheered, they sang, they waved flags, sometimes they danced. They clearly were having a wonderful time and, even when their team was behind, the support never wavered.
For more on the Pacific Netball Series check Cook Islands News online here.