Kiribati sprinter marks milestone in Paris

Kenaz Kaniwete is one of the Pacific’s rising forces in athletics following his achievements at the Paris Olympics.

The 16-year-old Kiribati sprinter became the youngest athlete to compete in the track and field events in France.

Kaniwete raced in heat two of the men’s 100m on the weekend, finishing in fifth place and clocking a personal best of 11.29 seconds. The Kiribati record, set by Rabangaki Nawai at the Oceania Championships in Apia in 2006, is 11.17s.

Kiribati sprints sensation Kenaz Kaniwete training in Tarawa before the team headed to Paris. Photo/Team Kiribati

Kaniwete, who debuted at the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands last November, aged 15, beat Montenegro’s Darko Pesic and Steven Sabino from Mozambique at Stade de France on Saturday, New Zealand time.

Kaniwete had set personal best results in the 100m (11.35) and 200m (23.31) at the Oceania Championships in Fiji in June to qualify for Paris.

Watch the men's 100m final in Paris 2024. For the first time in history, eight men have broken 10 seconds in a wind-legal blue-ribbon race.

In an interview with UNICEF, before he headed to France, the global youth ambassador shared his motivation.

“Two things drive my passion. I’m proud to represent my country and will display the Kiribati flag wherever I go, especially at the games," Kaniwete said.

“I also find inspiration in global track and field athletes, with Usain Bolt being the one I admire the most. I look up to him and strive to give my best, just like he does.

“I urge them [peers] to persist in their training, stay focused, and not be disheartened because they might have the opportunity to proudly represent the Kiribati flag in future games.”

The youngest athlete competing in Paris isn't even old enough to attend high school. Chinese skater Zheng Haohao is 11 years old and was born during the London 2012 Olympics.

She is competing in the women's skateboarding events, some of the newest to be added to the Olympics.

The oldest competitor in Paris is 65-year-old Juan Antonio Jimenez Cobo, of Spain, who made his equestrian Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000.

But officials say there’s a chance an older athlete could surpass Cobo. Australian rider Mary Hanna is a non-competing reserve. If there’s an injury or another reason that an athlete withdraws, Hanna, now 69, could compete.

While no Pacific athlete made it past the heats in the track and field events, there has been cause for celebration with a national record and other personal bests achieved.

Tuvalu's Karalo Maibuca Jr set a national record in his 100m heat. Photo/Team Tuvalu

Tuvalu’s Karalo Maibuca Jr was the toast of Team Pacific on the weekend after setting a national record in heat one of the men’s 100m, clocking 11.30.

The two-time Olympian finished in seventh place in Paris, an improved result from the preliminary round in Tokyo 2021 of 11.4.

Maibuca qualified for Paris after clocking 11.55 at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in 2023. He is ranked 68th in the world.

The 25-year-old was Tuvalu’s flagbearer in Tokyo and Paris. Coached by Fijian Bola Tafo’ou, he also studied Environmental Management at the University of the South Pacific in Suva.

Dad Ratu Karalo Maibuca Sr is Fijian and mum Tina hails from Kioa Village in Tuvalu. Ratu Karalo was a chaplain at the Tuvalu Christian Church where his children were born and raised.

In 2018, the family returned to Fiji when his father was reassigned to another church.

In Tokyo, Maibuca set a national record in the 100m (11.42) in the preliminary round of his Olympic debut. He did not advance to the heats.

He also competed in the 60m at the 2018 World Indoor Championships and is a two-time Commonwealth Games team member, debuting in 2018, and setting a national 100m record (11.39) in 2022.

At the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands in November 2023, Maibuca ran a windy 11.35. He also competed in the 200m (seventh in the semifinal) and reached the final of the 4x100m relay (sixth).

Team Fiji’s sole track athlete Waisake Tewa competes in the men's 100m heat. Photo/Team Fiji

Fijian Waisake Tewa clocked the best time for Team Pacific on the track, finishing seventh in 10.72 - a season-best.

The 20-year-old debuted at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Great Britain (60m - 38th) in March.

He is also coached by Tafo’ou at the Laucala Bay Athletics Club while pursuing a Certificate in Carpentry Engineering at the Fiji National University.

Tewa transitioned from the 800m to the shorter sprints after unexpectedly qualifying for the 100m and 200m at the 2023 Pacific Games Trials in Suva.

He moved to the capital in 2021, leaving his family in Vanua Levu, to pursue his athletics ambitions more effectively.

He has encountered numerous personal and financial challenges in his journey to compete at the Olympic level.

At the Oceania Championships in Suva this year, he was part of the 4x400m relay champion and national sprint double champion in 100m and 200m.

At the Oceania Champs, he depended on fellow athletes for essential equipment like track shoes because he couldn’t afford them.

He also faced challenges with training logistics, grappling with expenses for travel and training facilities.

Watch PMN's Olympics correspondent James Nokise's interview on Pacific Grandstand.

“To get these shoes is quite expensive and because I am not working I cannot afford them,” he told local media following his selection in the squad to Paris.

“I also have a hard time getting to the tracks to train because I have to use the money to travel and then pay for the use of the tracks or gym to work out.”

Tewa dedicated his first medal, the 800m win at the 2022 Coca-Cola Games -Fiji’s secondary schools' championships, to his mother.

He nearly missed his flight to Glasgow, Scotland, for the 2024 World Indoor Championships after a three-hour delay in Australia as the Oceania Athletics Association worked to secure his visa, along with that of Tongan athlete Mosese Foliaki.

Other results from the Pacific men’s track teams included a personal best from Guam’s Joseph Green, 22, in the 100m (10.85), Nauru’s Winzar Kakiouea, 23, sixth place in 11.15, Scott Fiti, 29, (Federated States of Micronesia) seventh and season best of 11.61, and Tongan Maleselo Fufofuka, 19, eighth in 12.11.

The men’s 100m gold was won by American Noah Lyles by five-thousandths of a second from Jamaican rival and Games fastest qualifier Kishane Thompson in a dramatic photo finish at the Stade on Monday, NZ time.

For the first time in history, eight men have broken 10 seconds in a wind-legal race, World Athletics said.

Lyles clocked a personal best of 9.79, Thompson (9.79), and former world champion Fred Kerley (USA) took the bronze medal in 9.81.

The Olympic record was set by Jamaican legend Usain Bolt in London in 2012 (9.63). Bolt also set the world record of 9.58 at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

American Noah Lyles, third from left, pips Jamaica's Kishane Thompson, third from right, in the men's 100m final. Fred Kerley (USA, second from right) took the bronze medal. Photo/pool

In the women’s track and field competition, no Pacific female qualified for the finals.

Guam’s Regine Tugade was the best performer, qualifying for the 100m heats after finishing fourth in the preliminary round with 12.02. Tuvalu’s Temalini Manatoa, 20, finished 8th in 14.04 ahead of Solomon Islands marathon runner Sharon Firisua (14.31), in the last.

But it was St Lucia’s Julien Alfred who was the talk of the Games - the historymaker - winning the gold and setting a new national record of 10.72.

Alfred beat favourite and world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, USA (10.87), on Sunday, New Zealand time.

In the pouring rain, it was all sunshine for the 23-year-old Alfred from the Caribbean island who etched her name into history. St Lucia had never won an Olympic medal but now they have their first and it’s the best one of the lot.

USA’s Melissa Jefferson won the bronze in 10.92. Two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price pulled out of the semifinals after suffering an injury.

Meanwhile, New Zealand athletics had a disastrous outing in Paris with Kiwi shotputter Tom Walsh suffering an injury and fouling all his throws, while sprinter Zoe Hobbs missed out on the 100m final.

St Lucia's Julien Alfred (Lane 6) wins the women's 100m final ahead of world champion Sha'Carri Richardson (Lane 7 - USA) and bronze medallist Melissa Jefferson (Lane 5 - USA). Photo/pool

Walsh’s team-mate Jacko Gill finished in seventh place. The gold went to American Ryan Crouser for the third Olympics in a row.

Hobbs managed 11.13 in her 100m semi-final, but it was not enough to qualify for the final.

"I just didn't execute a good race. I think I let it go from the get-go," she told RNZ. "My reaction wasn't great and over the first 10 I was already behind, and I let it slip through my fingers, and that's just the reality of the 100m sometimes."

"You have to put together a perfect race, especially to make an Olympic. I'm really disappointed.”

With many of the Pacific athletes heading home, the region's sailors, kayakers, and weightlifters are competing still this week.

The Paris Olympics end on 12 August. Find the official medal tally here.

PMN's Olympics coverage is proudly brought to you by the Pasifika Medical Association Group.