Samoa Off to Strong Start at Oceania Championships

Gold Coast, April 21 2024

It's been six years since the last Oceania Swimming Championships. Papua New Guinea were hosts of the last championships in 2018. Then, all went quiet for the Oceania platform due to pandemics, funding and hosting challenges. As Paris 2024 is just around the corner, Oceania Champs is now on at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre over the next four days.

Day one preliminaries saw Samoa's eight swimmers hit new records, advance to finals and welcome new swimmers to the fold.

First up were butterfly sprinters Johann Stickland and Hector Langkilde. Stickland, literally finishing at the Australian Nationals yesterday, turned on the power to secure second seed for the finals; breaking the open national record. Langkilde swam a solid time claiming sixth seed for tonight's finals.

Kokoro Frost and the two Hamilton brothers, Solomona and La'auli, came out in full force in the Men's 100m backstroke. 18 year old Solomona Hamilton advances to finals as fourth seed looking to break his own open Men's 100m Backstroke national record. Frost also advances to the finals cruising into sixth seed and ready to turn on all the engines for tonight's finals. For the first time representing Samoa at open level, La'auli Hamilton, 15 years old, swam a commendable time breaking the 15 year old Men's 100m Backstroke age national record, but missed out advancing to finals.

For the female events, up first was Salani Sa'aga, 15 years old, who broke the women's 15 year old age national record for the 50m Butterfly and claimed fifth seed for finals. The 100m Backstroke event showcased three females, Salani Sa'aga, Kaiya Brown, and newcomer Nafanua Hamilton. All had solid swims with Sa'aga and Hamilton claiming places in the finals. Sa'aga broke another age national record and 14 year old Hamilton is just 100th of seconds aways from breaking the age record.

A dominant team of Stickland, Langkilde, Brown and N. Hamilton in the 4 x 50m Mixed Freestyle Relay has Team Samoa on the heels of Team Australia and Team New Zealand for third seed in tonight's finals.

Finals are tonight at 6:30pm Queensland time.