DARWIN, Australia – Team NMI banked a gold and a silver and put a respectable fifth-place senior finish on the board at the 2026 Oceania Athletics Championships Friday at Arafura Stadium, capping a productive day for the Marianas delegation in the final stretch of the regional meet.
Simon Tang, the CNMI’s World Indoor Championships hurdles representative, won the Men’s 110-meter hurdles U20 in 15.02 seconds, beating Tonga’s Eric Tuiono by more than a second.
Landen Taflinger added a second silver medal to his Darwin campaign, finishing the Men’s 1500-meter U20 in 4:25.83. Guam’s Rynier Di Ramos took gold in 4:24.54, with Tonga’s Mounga Leao third in 4:30.00. The result came on top of Taflinger’s earlier silver in the Men’s 800-meter U20 with a new NMI national record of 2:05.70.
Nathania “Tania” Tan, the CNMI’s record-holder in the 3,000m, 5,000m, and 10,000m, finished fifth in the Women’s 5000-meter Senior in 18:02.68. The race was won by Australia’s Holly Campbell in 16:27.01, with Izzy Thornton-Bott of Australia second and Eva Pringle of New Zealand third. Tan’s time was the top result among Pacific delegation entries, ahead of athletes from French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, Guam, and the Solomon Islands.
Team NMI’s roster for the championships includes middle-distance standout Tan; field event specialist Maria Maelaine Quitugua, the national record holder in women’s javelin; U.S.-based World Athletics Championships representative sprinter Theodore Rodgers; hurdles specialist Tang; and rising track siblings Landen and Addalee Taflinger, with Lia Rangamar serving as team manager.
The CNMI delegation traveled to Darwin amid an active Super Typhoon Sinlaku recovery on the home islands, with athletes including the Taflinger siblings and Quitugua training through disrupted facilities and compromised infrastructure in the weeks before the meet.
The 2026 Oceania Athletics Championships, hosted at Arafura Stadium in Darwin, Northern Territory, conclude Saturday, May 23.
