Cook Islands athletics team, led by top middle distance runner Alex Beddoes and including record-holder Daniel Tolosa, heads to the Oceania Athletics Championship in Fiji aiming for personal bests and medals.

The championship will be held from June 1-9 in Suva, Fiji.

Beddoes will participate in the open men’s 200 metres, 400m, 800m and 1500m.

The 28-year-old also aims to compete in the 5000m event.

Athletics Cook Islands president Simone Fe’ao says Beddoes is hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to be held from July 26 to August 11.

The national team to the Oceania Athletics Championship also includes Max Teuruaa, Piri Nga, Daniel Tolosa, Hiwi Wuatai, Elijah Poila, Estelle Short, Ana Ellison-Lupena, Emma Papalií, Tatjiana Areai, and Retire Daniel.

Daniel, a 17-year-old student of Araura College in Aitutaki, will be competing in the U18 Men’s Javelin event. He has been training in Aitutaki under coach Tatiana Sherwin.

In his first international/regional event, alongside Wuatai who will compete in the open men’s javelin event, Daniel says he hopes to set a new personal best at the Oceania Championship and also gain a better knowledge of the event internationally from his colleagues and competitors.

Daniel’s current personal best is 46 metres.

He thanked his supporters from Aitutaki for helping him prepare for the competition.

Sprinter Daniel Tolosa, who competed at the World Indoor Championship (WIC) in Glasgow, Scotland, in March, and equalled the longstanding national record that was set by Harmon Harmon at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, is aiming to set yet another personal best in Fiji.

Tolosa, who will be competing in 100m and 200m races, said: “My goal for every competition is to set personal bests in my events. This year I aim to reach sub 11 and this championship is a chance to do that before winter training officially starts.”

He said that preparation towards the upcoming championship has been going well and he is ready.

“I’m looking forward to this competition as it will be my second time going. I’d like to thank the University of Auckland for their support and for partially funding my trip to this event,” Tolosa said.

“I encourage those who want to pursue higher education and are excelling in high-performance activities such as sports to consider the University of Auckland as your choice of study. They have an awesome programme set up to support your high-performance goals.”

The open men’s decathlon, pole vault and javelin athlete Max Teuruaa, who competed at the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands, last year, hopes for some improvements in many of his events and to perform well during the competition. 

Teuruaa said: “I have been facing some challenges when it comes to maintaining a healthy body through harsher training sessions but I’m making it work.”

Piritau Nga will be competing in the open men’s long jump and also hopes to set a new personal best at the competition.

However, Nga said he faced a few injuries leading up to the competition but should be alright by the time the competition starts.

Other athletes, Emma Louisa Papaalii will participate in the shot put and discus event, Estelle Short will be competing in open women’s 100m and 200m, and Ana Ellison-Lupena will feature in the U18 women’s shot put, discus and hammer.

Fe’ao said training was always a challenge for these athletes who had to manage around their full-time commitments of school and university studies and limited coaching resources on the island.

“Challenges are technical coaching and mental development for our athletes. We’ve had two online workshop sessions with New Zealand specialists, sports nutritionist Dane Baker and Oceania record holder for women’s 100m Zoe Hobbs,” she said.

Fe’ao says there’s a large contingent of athletes from Australia and New Zealand attending “so competition will be tough”.

“We are hoping to get season best performances from all our athletes and hopefully bag some medals.”

Fe’ao said they are also putting together a 4x100m relay team of Wuatai, Tolosa, Nga and Teuruaa.

In the last championship held in Mackay, Australia, four of the athletes in the current team – Poila, Papalii, Nga and Tolosa – represented the country.

The seven Cook Islands-based athletes will depart Rarotonga tomorrow and join the New Zealand-based athletes before heading to Fiji.

Team:

Alex Beddoes: Open Mens 800m, 1500m, 5000m; Max Teuruaa: Open Mens Decathlon, Javelin and Pole Vault; Piri Nga: Open Mens Long Jump; Daniel Tolosa: Open Mens 100m & 200m; Hiwi Wuatai: Open Mens Javelin; Elijah Poila: Opens Mens Discus & Shotput; Estelle Short: Open Womens 100m & 200m; Ana Ellison-Lupena: U18 Hammer, Shotput and Discus; Emma Papalií : U18 Shotput & Discus; Tatjiana Areai: U18 Long Jump & High Jump; Retire Daniel: U18 Javelin. Travelling Team Manager: Simone Fe’ao, Assistant Team Manager: Marie William, Team Coach: Michael Tolosa and Physio: Vaughan Craddock.