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Arafura Games action |
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The Australian Defence Organisation won 20 gold medals at the Arafura Games in Darwin from May 11-19 and also managed to pick up a fair swag of silver and bronzes. Overall Defence contributed 59 (20 gold, 21 silver and 18 bronze) of the 698 medals Australia won (248 gold, 251 silver and 199 bronze) at the games in Darwin from May 11-19. Medals were up for grabs in 24 sports as hundreds of athletes from around the world, but chiefly from our near north and Southern Pacific neighbours, competed. In women’s soccer the ADO beat Enga of Papua New Guinea 1-0 after it was 0-0 at half time, and then lost 2-1 to Malaysia. It was a case of deja vu when ADO met and beat Enga 4-2 in the semi-finals before settling for silver after losing the final, once again to Malaysia 2-0. The women’s basketball team was undefeated in the first three rounds of the basketball, beating PNG 65-42, Madang Province 100-72 and Northern Territory 63-48 but lost a close semi-final 76-61 to eventual gold medallist, the United States. Malaysia won the women’s gold 81-64 against the US with the ADO’s strength and structure proving too strong for the speedy, agile PNG in the play-off for the bronze medal. PNG never lost touch and showed some aggressive defence despite losing 67-57. In men’s basketball the ADO men lost a thriller 77-76 to the Australian indigenous team with the decider coming in the final minutes and also lost their semi-final to the US 88-43 to end up fourth. In women’s netball the gold medal went to PNG 62-43 against the Northern Territory with the ADO wrapping up the bronze with a 27-26 win against Malaysia. It was a good fightback for the women who lost 48-27 to PNG, 34-23 to Malaysia and 38-20 to the Northern Territory in the preliminaries but beat Singapore 49-18 and Japan 72-8. Nottle in for the long run Navy’s LEUT Josh Nottle, of HMAS Cairns, proved he was in it for the long run by winning two gold medals at the Arafura Games in Darwin from May 11-19. LEUT Nottle backed up his ADF 1500m title with a solid win at the games in 4:04:80to beat the Northern Territory’s Anthony McCourt in 4:06.60. Then he stretched himself to win the 3000m steeplechase in 10:32.65 from Korey Summers, of the Northern Territory, in 11:36.59. He was also second in the 800m (2:02:12) losing by .07sec to Air Force’s LAC William Harding (RAAF Townsville) in a classic sprint finish to the line. “Like many middle distances races, where tactics play a huge part in the race, both the 800m and 1500m races came down to who made the right choice on the night and both were very exciting and nail-biting finishes,” ADO athletics team manager, CPL Gary Ewart of RAAF Base Amberley said. The diminutive ACW Cassie Fien (Air Force) stole the limelight with four golds including the 5000m and 10,000m in ADF open women’s track and games records, as well as the 1500m and half-marathon. CPL Ewart was elated by the ADO’s athletics medals tally of nine gold medals, six silver and five bronze. “Compared with the ADO’s contingent, this represented almost half its tally of golds,” CPL Ewart said. Defence shooter hits the target Wally Gibb successfully flew the flag for the Australian Defence Organisation in the men’s shooting events at the Arafura Games with three gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Gibb won the service pistol gold with 826 points from FSGT David Gay (RAAF Townsville) second with 824 points and they combined with Peter Richards to take the team gold with an aggregate of 2466 by beating another ADO team of Gary Ward, WO2 Gary Grossman (5th Combat Eng Rgt) and W02 George Plessey (13 Combat Service Support) into second with 2334 points. Gibb also won the 25m centre fire gold 48-41 in a shoot off. ADO representatives also did well in golf and bowls teams events and cycling. |
