Banuve Tabakaucoro knew he was in control of the 200m men’s sprint when he found out that he had the outer lane from crowd favourite, Jeremy Dodson of Samoa.

“What I did today was I made Jeremy run my race and just working on that first 150 metres. I was waiting and waiting on him and he just couldn’t get me today and it just shows the character that you have,” he said.

Tabakaucoro successfully defended his title stopping the clock at 20.87s.

‘KILLER FINISHER’

Dodson, a 200m specialist settled for silver at 20.91s.

He had beaten Tabakaucoro two weeks ago at the Oceania Championships in Townsville. Theo Piniau of Papua New Guinea came in third 21.70s.

“Knowing Jeremy, he’s been in the business for long.

“I was hoping to have a lane out in front of him in the final which I did, if I was behind him I would have to run his race.

“Jeremy is a killer finisher so I was hoping to stay out in front of him for the whole 200m,” he said.

The finish clearly showed who wanted the win more.

“It was a crazy lean,” Tabakaucoro said.

Dodson ran in Lane 3 while Tabakaucoro was in Lane 4.

THIRD GAMES

The win means that Tabakaucoro has successfully defended his 100m and 200m sprints, which he has won in three consecutive Pacific Games- Noumea 2011, PNG 2015 and Samoa 2019.

The Bau sprinter dedicated the two golden wins to his wife Rachel and their two sons (Timoci and Etuate).

“Thank you for being my source of strength. Thank you for staying up late at night and cooking all my meals, I love you so much, this one is for you.”

DISAPPOINTING FINISH

A disappointed Dodson who had banked on home crowd advantage said his goal was to get an Olympic qualifier.

“While the conditions were perfect, the weather was perfect, my race wasn’t. Not anyone is satisfied until they beat Usain Bolt,” Dodson said.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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