A new Pacific Sprint King will be crowned tonight in the 2023 Pacific Games.

Following the retirement of reigning champion, Banuve Tabakaucoro, fellow Fijian and rookie Waisake Tewa has his work cut out in trying to beat the best in the region in the 100-meter sprint final.

Tewa clocked a personal best of 10.71 seconds in the semi-finals last night.

He will take on a field of experienced sprinters, including Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy who qualified in 10.53 seconds and Papua New Guinea’s Wisil Pais, who has the second-best qualifying time of 10.63 seconds.

2019 Pacific Games silver medallist, Jeremy Dodson of Samoa was a clear favourite but suffered a hamstring injury in the semi-final, ruling him out of the sprint final.

Meanwhile, the men’s touch rugby side beat the Solomon Islands 4-0 in their round-robin match today.

The men’s and women’s Va’a teams will soon compete in the V6 500-meter heats later today.