Nov 29, 2023
Wednesday, November 29, 2023 – 17thPacific Games, Honiara, Solomon Islands
Team Guam Taekwondo’s Leon Ho dominated his opponents in the -63kg division. In his qualifying match, Ho took approximately thirty seconds in each round to dismiss his Kiribati counterpart by the 12-point gap rule in both first and second round and advanced to the medal round.
In the semifinal match he beat his Papua New Guinea foe 2 rounds to nil winning the first round by a thin margin 4-3, then closed the match with a head kick on his taller opponent to advance to the gold medal round with a 10-1 margin.
It took a lot of patience, but Ho timed two kicks to the head in the waning seconds of the first round to go up1-0 on an 8-2 score followed by a 11-2 second round score leading to his first gold medal in his third stint of the Games.
Camden Camacho’s hope for a second gold medal in Tennis was dashed on the court today as Heve Kelley of Tahiti took the match in straight sets 2-6, 3-6. Camacho will compete in the bronze medal match on Thursday.
In other Team Guam action:
Basketball 3x3, Team Guam men defeated Cook Island 21-12, then lost to Palau 17-21 in the nightcap. The women’s team dropped both matchups losing to Papua New Guinea 14-18 and to New Caledonia 12-21.
Triathlon Jacob Torres finished second in his heat to advance to the final round of the Individual super sprint.
Va’a competed in the 1500m event at DC Park for both the men and women’s division.
A couple of days after his silver medal performance, Hugh Kent competed in the 5k run finishing the race in 4thplace by 19 seconds. However, he improved his best time by more than 30 seconds in the process.
The Taekwondo gold brings the total medal count to six gold, four silver, and four bronze for Team Guam.