Palau leads the medals in 5th Micro Games

Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

Palau leads the medals in 5^th Micro Games

KOLONIA, Pohnpei (FSM Information Service): August 1, 2002 - At the conclusion of the 5^th Micronesian Games, team Palau led the pack with a tally of 71 medals, followed closed behind by the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas with 67 and Pohnpei trailing the two with 64 medals.

The 5^th Micronesian Games began on July 21 and closed today at 4:00 pm, ends with a medal count that shows the following:

STATE	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
CHK	10	03	10	23
CNMI	24	26	17	67
GUM	20	14	15	49
KIR	01	02	01	04
KOS	08	02	05	15
RMI	11	14	11	36
ROP	23	28	20	71
PNI	16	20	28	64
YAP	11	11	06	28

Several of the island nations had established their areas of dominance during 5^th Micronesian Games.

In the Athletics - Chuuk dominated the Track and Field sprints with their Lightning Twins, Jack and John Howard. Guam's Neil Weare ruled the distance with gold in all 800 and above events. And the rest of the Athletic events were meted out equally among the participating island countries.

The baseball games were dominated by Guam, who made a clean sweep of the diamond field to capture the gold in the finals against CNMI. Softball on the other hand, was strictly a Pohnpei and Guam affair, with both the men and women teams pitted against each other for the gold. Guam crushed Pohnpei in the Fast-Pitch to capture the Gold in a 9-3 win, while Pohnpei's women pulverized the Guam team to win the gold, 8-0.

Guam also laid claim to the 'courts' capturing gold in basketball, tennis and volleyball.

Team CNMI had overall captured the most gold, but their definite dominion was the swimming competition where they won gold in most of the categories.

Palau, one gold behind CNMI, ruled the Outrigger Canoeing events sweeping the gold in all categories. They had also picked up medals in the various oceanic sports. But team Palau's true wealth as the medal champ was amassed by being the most consistent medal winner in all the events of the 5^th Micronesian Games.

The distinctly Micronesian events, the Micronesia-All-Around championship, went to Pohnpei who secured gold in both men and women events.

To be commended among the participating island nations is the Republic of Kiribati whose six athletes proudly took home four (4) medals; 2/3 of their combined force secured medals.

At the closing ceremony, the island nations endorsed Yap State as the host for the 6^th Micronesian Games scheduled for year 2006.