Australia has finished sixth on the overall Medal Tally with 33 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze medals.

The 15-strong Taekwondo team made history when they won every single weight division entered in Samoa, coming home with 15 gold medals.

The Weightlifting contingent won 32 medals between them, the young Sailing team secured two bronze, Athletics are bringing home five gold, the men’s Beach Volleyball team also secured gold, and the women’s Rugby Sevens team won the silver medal behind Fiji.

The Taekwondo squad varied greatly in experience, with three-time Olympian and World Champion Carmen Marton leading the charge, all the way to 18-year-old Mackenzie Singleton making his international debut.

Marton is chasing her fourth Olympic experience at Tokyo 2020. She convincingly defeated Guam for the gold medal, 39-0 in the women’s -57kg division, securing valuable world ranking points.

“This result is pivotal in getting me to Tokyo. It’s massive in terms of the 40 points that we will now get, which will qualify me for the upcoming Sofia Grand Prix, which is another opportunity to score some Olympic qualification points,” Marton said.

On the other end of the scale, Samoa 2019 was Singleton’s first time in the green and gold at an international meet. He came up against Papua New Guinea’s Bobby Willie in the final and put up the fight of his young career to win the gold by one point.

“I was 10 points down in the last 30 seconds, so I went for big head kicks which score 3 points, and body kicks which made up the majority of the points,” he said.

“I got to an even point and I decided the best way to get one point and get ahead in the final seconds was a big punch, and I landed it. I looked at the score board and the number flicked over and my heart just skipped a beat, I realised I had 0.5 seconds left and I had got it, I had won.”

“I’ve been doing taekwondo for about 12 years now, but I’ve never gotten this far before,” the 18-year-old said.

“My mum and dad came to watch my fight, it’s a dream for them to watch me on the mats. When I got out there, I turned away from the crowd and I pointed at the ‘AUS’ on the back of my Dobok and I pointed to my mum to let her know, we made it."

Australian Chef de Mission Kenny Wallace said it’s the differences between athletes such as Carmen and Mackenzie, but also the similarities, that makes the Pacific Games such a special experience.

“Before we left for the Games, I said that medals are great, but my aim for the Team is for every athlete to perform to the best of their abilities, and to benefit from this multi-sport experience, and I think the Team 100% achieved that,” the three-time Olympian said.

“I think the set-up that we had, with everyone staying in the one house, promoted interaction between the sports and all athletes.

“For example, we have Olympians Carmen and Safwan [Khalil] from the taekwondo team, alongside first timers like Mackenzie and Paris [van den Herik] in sailing. It’s an amazing experience for those young guys and they learnt a lot, not just in the sporting space, but also in how to conduct themselves off the field of play.

“It doesn’t matter where the athletes have come from or how much experience they have, everyone worked extremely hard to be selected on this Team and gave their best performance on the day. Everyone is equal in the Team, everyone got along really well, everyone had a great time from my understanding. It’s been a fantastic Team to be a part of.”

Australia’s athletics squad won five gold medals at Apia Park, and set five new Pacific Games records in the process.

London 2012 Olympian Steve Solomon ran a season’s best time of 45.62 in the men’s 400m, beating the Pacific Games record of 46.42, set by Fiji’s Soloveni Koroi Naukaunicina in 1997.

The 26-year-old said while the gold is a great accomplishment and the world ranking points will be valuable in helping him qualify for Tokyo 2020, he’s thrilled to have helped his competitors achieve their personal goals and be part of the Pacific Games spirit.

“I was really happy that I was able to bring Daniel and Ben [from Papua New Guinea], who came second and third today, to a life-time best performance,” he said after his race.

“Getting to share that joy with them, they were very grateful and I was very grateful to be able to help out.

“I think the community element of the Games really distinguishes it from other competitions and hand-in-hand with that, the spirit of seeing everyone compete with such patriotism and such joy, it’s definitely something I’ll treasure.”

Wallace said it’s moments like this that make the Pacific Games a different experience to most international events.

“There was a great atmosphere in the grandstand watching Steve Solomon run, there was this sense that the crowd were watching something really special, seeing him go that fast,” he said.

“Having Steve - and the rest of the Athletics Team - perform the way they did really made this event world class. Knowing Steve helped push the Papua New Guinea athletes to personal best times, and knowing how grateful they were to him for helping them to achieve that, that’s part of the legacy we’ve left at these Games and the impact our Team has made.

“The medals are great, but we wanted to create a culture within the Team where everyone wants to go out there and do their best, support their teammates, and support their competitors.

“The other Teams not only saw how our athletes performed on the field, but they saw how our athletes conducted themselves off the field in an exemplary manner, and that’s probably what I’m most proud of from this Team.”

Australia won 35 medals during the first week of the Games, across weightlifting, beach volleyball, women’s rugby sevens and sailing. Relive the Week 1 highlights HERE.

See all Team Australian results HERE.

Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au