Vol. 35 No.121     
©2007 Marianas Variety Friday, August 31, 2007

Alexandrina Patris gives Palau 3 gold in weightlifting
By Nazario Rodriguez Jr., Horizon news staff

The First woman athlete to win Palau’s first gold in the mini South Pacific Games in 2005 made it anew in the ongoing 13th Pacific games in Apia, Samoa. This is based on the initial results in the Games’ official websitewww.samoa2007.ws.

Alexandrina Patris made it a triple gold performance in the 63kg category right in the first day of the weightlifting competitions at the Faleata Sports Complex yesterday. Patris lifted 70kg in the snatch for the gold and had 92kg in the clean and jerk for another gold and a total lift of 162kg for her third gold.

In the process, Patris tied the South Pacific Games record of 92kg in the clean and jerk and 162kg total lift which he established by winning two gold medals in the mini Games on July 27, 2005 in Koror. She was, however, short of 2kg from the current record of 72kg in the snatch owned by Fiji’s Kesaia Tawai in the 1999 Guam Pacific Games. Her only competitor from Papua New Guinea, Margaret Luke, had 60kg in the snatch, 80kg in the clean and jerk.

Twin sister Alexandra was also scheduled to compete later in the day in the 58kg category.

The name of the late Velerie Pedro is also entered in the 69kg. category, apparently because the organizing committee was not informed about her death. Pedro won one of the seven gold medals that Palau had in the mini games that it hosted in 2005.

Team Palau is also scheduled to compete in other events yesterday namely baseball, women’s softball, swimming and table tennis but there are no available results.

Also as of press time, the official Games’ website has no available data for the overall medal standings.