Pacific sprint King and Queen retain titles

Banuve Tabakaucoro and Toea Wisil remain the fastest man and woman in the Pacific after defending their 100m titles in Samoa last night.

Fiji's Tabakaucoro set a new Pacific Games record of 10.31 seconds to hold off the challenge from hometown duo Jeremy Dodson and Kelvin Masoe to win his third straight gold medal in the event.

"It feels good to come out here and defend my title. It's been a tough few weeks, especially trying to perform to the expectations of the crowd back home."

"This is a title that's been in Fiji since even before I was born so I'm just glad to come out here and defend it once again," he said.

"This is probably the strongest competition I've had from the Islanders - Jeremy Dodson, Samoa, and Kelvin (Masoe) their local boy. When you have strong competition like that the times are going to drop and eventually you're going to run quicker."

The 26 year-old only recently returned to the sport following two years playing sevens rugby and said it's been quite the journey.

"My PB is 10.2 seconds and so now we're sitting at 10.31 so I'm pretty happy where we're at right now."

"You don't see many stories like this where people come back from other sports and perform this well on track and field o I'm pretty pleased with where I am right now."

Papua New Guinea's Toea Wisil set a new Pacific Games record of 11.50 seconds in the heats before going on to clinch a third consecutive Pacific Games title in 11.56.

"I feel good to be winning and I broke the South Pacific record (after trying) for a long time and back to form again so I'm happy with my performance tonight," she said.

The 31 year-old Wisil made her Pacific Games debut when Samoa last hosted the event in 2007 and said it's been a welcome return.

"I was 19 years old and I came and win the bronze medal and ended coming back to winning again and it's a good memory on this track too and winning a gold medal is real amazing," she said.

Fiji's Heleina Young took home the silver medal, finishing in 11.82 seconds, with Papua New Guinea's Leonie Beu claiming bronze in 11.94 seconds.

Both Banuve Tabakaucoro and Toea Wisil will be back in action later today, defending the men's 200 and women's 400m titles.