Pacific athletes underway at Rio Paralympics

Pacific athletes from Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa have begun competition at the Rio Paralympics.

RNZ reports Papua New Guinea's Joyleen Jeffrey ran a season best time in the women's 100m T12 event at the Olympic Stadium.

The 26 year old finished third in her heat in 15.33 seconds but failed to qualify for the semi finals.

Jeffrey, who is also entered in the 200m event, was the slowest of the 11 athletes to complete the race, while one competitor from Ukraine was disqualified and a Frenchwoman failed to start.

Fiji's Merewalesi Roden was beaten in straight sets, 11-2 11-3 11-5, by Young-A Jung from South Korea in the Class 5 women's table tennis singles.

Meanwhile Samoa's Alefosio Laki threw a personal best of 33.53 metres in the men's F37 Discus final.

The 19 year old Laki, who has cerebral palsy, finished at the back of the field in 12th place.

Norbekov Khusniddin from Uzbekistan won the gold medal, setting a new world record of 59.75 metres.

Tonga's two Paralympians begin competition next week.

 

Photo: Team Fiji Paralympics/Facebook