By Michelle Jerewai, Port Moresby 2015 Games News Service
PORT MORESBY, July 11 – Lara Grangeon (NCL) moved to ten gold medals so far at the Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games as she claimed two more swimming titles at the BSP Arena on Friday night.
It means the 23-year-old is three gold medals ahead of the leading men’s swimmer Ryan Pini (PNG), who has seven after also winning two races on Friday.
Grangeon added the women’s 200m individual medley and the 100m butterfly titles to her medal collection on Friday evening.
“I am very happy to be swimming here, the swimming pool is so amazing,” said Grangeon.
Pini won his latest golds for Papua New Guinea in the 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke – setting records in each.
“The family is here. It’s pretty awesome for them to be here and I couldn’t have done it without family support,” said Pini.
Pini’s time of 23.10 seconds in the 50m freestyle beat his time of 23.21 seconds set in the earlier heat, while Stephane Debaere (TAH) won silver and Julien-Pierre Goyetche (NCL) got bronze.
In the 100m backstroke, Pini’s time of 56 seconds beat his preliminary round time of 58.94 seconds. Teiki Dupont (TAH) came in second and Goyetche (NCL) got his second bronze of the evening.
Grangeon set a time of 2:17.84 in the 200m individual medley, while Matelita Buadromo (FIJ) claimed silver and Savannah Tkatchenko (PNG) collected bronze.
Grangeon won the 100m butterfly in one minute, six seconds, ahead of Emma Terebo (NCL) and Tegan McCarthy (PNG).
Elsewhere, Rahiti De Vos (TAH) won gold in the men’s 200m butterfly, while New Caledonia won the women’s 800m freestyle relay ahead of Fiji and PNG.
Both Grangeon and Pini will almost certainly add to their gold medal tallies on Saturday, the last day of swimming at the Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games.
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