Sāmoa discus thrower makes history at Olympics

Sāmoan discus thrower Alex Melei Rose is through to the Olympic finals in Paris.

Rose threw 62.88m in qualification group B to qualify for the finals, his best performance yet, in his third Olympic Games appearance.

Rose says it's a milestone for Sāmoa and the region.

"First Pacific Islander in 68 years to qualify for an Olympic final in athletics. This has been a career goal for so many years ... third time's the charm."

On completing his three attempts at the discus throw, Rose raised his arms in celebration and waved to his wife in the crowd.

PMN Olympics correspondent James Nokise said although Rose just scraped into the final in the last qualifying spot, he could take inspiration from this year's winner of the dramatic 100m men's sprint.

"If Noah Lyles can take two races to warm up to winning a gold medal, Alex can take a couple of throws to get there as well, we haven't lost faith."

The discus final is on Thursday at 6.25am New Zealand time, where he will be up against the world record holder from Lithuania, Mykolas Alenka.

Sāmoa's Alex Rose qualifies for the mens discus finals at the Olympics. Photo/Facebook

Rose was born in the United States but holds dual citizenship with Sāmoa due to his father emigrating to the US at 19 years old.

Rose also competes in shotput and hammer throw, and has an extensive medal collection spanning almost a decade across the Pacific Games and Oceania Championships, winning nine gold and three silver medals.

He also set an Oceania Area record in April last year with a throw of 70.39m

Another Pacific athlete making headlines is 16-year-old sprinter Kenaz Kaniwete from Kiribati, who became the youngest athlete to compete in the track and field events in France, and Tuvalu's Karolo Maibuca Jr who set a national record in the men's 100m sprint heat.

Nokise said Fiji swimmer Anahira McCutcheon turned heads when she posted a time of 26.88 seconds in the women's 50m freestyle heat.

"It wasn't fast enough to advance to the next round, but it's the fastest time by a Pacific woman in the pool at this Olympics.

"It's got coaches excited because she's 14, that means you could be looking at the start of a quadruple Olympian."

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