The Fijian men's team delivered a spectacular performance at the National Stadium in Honiara in their 19-5 victory over Samoa in the gold medal match, while Tonga took the bronze by convincingly defeating Papua New Guinea 19-7.

Fiji's captain Suliano Volivolituevei, who led by example by scoring the first try of the match, said, "Firstly, I want to thank the Lord. I was part of the team in 2019 where we won gold, so I urged the boys that we had to defend our title."

Women's dominance was also seen in Fiji. The Fijian girls defeated Papua New Guinea 17-7. After the match, Fijian veteran Lavenia Tinai praised her team's progress: "These are my third Pacific Games, and seeing how far our team has come in this tournament, especially since we consist mainly of new players, is very rewarding for me," she told the Pacific Games News Service.

Fiji's team success extended to basketball, where they defeated Guam 51-47 at the Friendship Hall in Honiara on Saturday. Filimone Waqubaca, the 22-year-old star from Fiji, said, "Getting here is not an easy task, competing against the defending champions from Guam. They are a strong and great team, and we had to go out and do our best to win, and we did it."

In the men's bronze medal match, New Caledonia comfortably defeated Samoa 97-61.

In an exciting women's gold medal contest, Tahiti beat the Cook Islands 53-46. The bronze went to Fiji, who defeated Samoa 63-55.

Basketball action will continue in its 3x3 version starting from Wednesday, December 29, to Saturday, January 2, at the SIFF Academy.

In another team sport, Tahiti dominated and secured a double in Volleyball: They defeated Papua New Guinea 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-18) in a packed Friendship Hall on Saturday in the men's category, while in the women's category, they secured another gold medal by dethroning the reigning champions, New Caledonia, 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 17-25, 25-21). The bronzes went to Samoa and Fiji, respectively.

In swimming, New Caledonia and Tahiti claimed all the available medals in the open water swimming races at the Sol2023 Pacific Games in DC Park on Saturday, with a large crowd supporting the swimmers despite the light rain.

In the women's 5 km open water race, Lara Grangeon De Villele of New Caledonia won her twelfth gold medal of the Games, completing the grueling race in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 26.37 seconds. Her compatriot Maiana Flament (1:06:00.64) followed to take the silver, less than a second ahead of Lili Paillisse of Tahiti (1:06:01.32).

In a closely contested men's 5 km open water race, Nael Roux of Tahiti won gold (his third in the Games), setting a new Pacific Games record of 58 minutes and 39.88 seconds, just ahead of John William Dabin of New Caledonia (58:46.43). Enzo Costa-Lacombe of Tahiti followed just three seconds later to claim the bronze (58:49.98).

In the mixed 4 x 1.25 km open water relay, New Caledonia (Grangeon De Villele, Flament, Dabin, and Loann Cayuela) comfortably took the gold with a time of 1:06:46.53, and Tahiti (Paillisse, Deotille Videau, Roux, and Costa-Lacombe) took the silver, almost 10 minutes behind them (1:16:04.17). No bronze medal was awarded, as the other participating teams, Palau and the Solomon Islands, did not finish within the time limit.

In this way, Grangeon De Villele of New Caledonia concludes her historic participation in the Pacific Games with 13 gold medals in swimming after the open water races.

Continuing in the water but in another discipline: Australia and New Caledonia claim gold in women's sailing and men's windsurfing. New Caledonia won three gold medals in Windsurfing, and Australia won two in Lightweight Sailing. Samuel Launay and Laurent Cali, from New Caledonia, each won gold in their individual events and also in the team event. There will be no Sailing action on Sunday, with everything resuming on Monday, November 27, from 10 am at DC Park.