16 July 2019 Pacific Games Apia Samoa. Pacific Games News Service. In another first for the Samoa XVI Pacific Games, athletics held at Apia Park this week includes four parasport events.
The first was the Women’s Javelin at 9.30am this morning where the medal winners became the first claimants of the ambulant events.
New Caledonia’s Rose Vandegou claimed gold with a throw of 22.14 metres and a weighted score of 73.45 per cent, Vanuatu’s Elie Enock won silver with a throw of 13.56m and a weighted score of 43.03 per cent, and Solomon Islands’ Jeminah Otoa secured bronze with a throw of 18.25m and a score of 42.42 per cent.
Ambulant events are for athletes who are standing, starred competitors with a range of disability classifications.
The final results are calculated within a system of weighted averages linked to a classification based on the type of disability. The Samoa Pacific Games Office confirms that, “the final results are calculated based on their throw distance and a score weighting that corresponds to the athlete’s para classification and how close their throw distance is to the record score in that classification”.
This means athletes do have to wait a little after the competition for the calculations to be done in order to confirm who ultimately has the highest scores.
Other ambulant events include the Men’s Javelin, a Men’s 100m sprint, Women’s 100m sprint. These are all on Day 2 of athletics (Tuesday 16th July). There is also the Women’s shotput ambulant on Friday 19th July.
