2 sprinters on track

Cook Islands sprinters Patricia Taea and Patrick Tuara are in Australia for the Oceania Athletics Championships – their final preparation event before the London Olympics starting on July 27.

The Rarotonga based sprinters are joined at the championships by young up and coming sprinter Alex Beddoes who is based in New Zealand for school.

Tuara will compete in the open men’s 100m sprint while Taea will compete in the 100m sprint as well as javelin.

Beddoes will compete in the 800m track race.

For Beddoes, this is his final preparation event before he attends the World Junior Athletics Championships in Spain in July.

Taea and Tuara are part of the eight athletes that make up Team Cook Islands to represent the country at the London Games including swimmers Celeste Brown and Zachary Tepaia Payne, slalom canoeists Ella Nicholas and Josh Utanga, national sailor Helema Williams and weightlifter Luisa Peters.

The sprinters are expected to return home after competition this week on Saturday.