Her Story Made: Team Marianas Hauls in 31 Medals

Koror, Palau — It was a storybook ending for Team Marianas as they wrapped up a strong run at the 2025 Palau Pacific Mini Games, finishing with a total of 31 medals—including a gold from Tania Tan and a bronze from the women's 3x3 basketball team on the final day, Wednesday, July 9.

When the dust settled, the sweat and tears dried, and the final tallies were in, Team Marianas landed in the top six overall with 10 golds, eight silvers, and 13 bronzes.

To start the last day of the games off, golden girl Tania Tan sped through the toughest course in Micronesia with a golden finish and a new national record in the half-marathon with a time of 1:28.40. Silver went to New Caledonia's Natalia Alfonso at 1:32.11, and bronze was Solomon Islands' Dianah Matekali.

Tan ran smiling through to the finish line and was greeted by her parents and teammates just before rain poured on an early Wednesday morning. She said of her run this time after failing to podium in the 2023 Pacific Games, “Obviously very tired because I did run a 10K and 5K before this and this course is apparently the toughest in Micronesia—I don't know. But yeah, the first half, the first 10K was like all hills so that was super tough and I knew the second half was going to be a struggle just because the fatigue would build up, but I still tried to finish strong and try to bring home the win.”

On how she felt ending her run in the Games with a gold, she said, “It's good to bring home another gold medal on the last and final day—we do have the women's 3x3 basketball that hopefully could get us another gold—we shall see, but just glad to end it on a good note.”

First time coach for the athletics team, former national sprinter Zarinae Sapong said of the team's performance, “I'm so proud of everybody—if it's not national records, it's personal records, or it's medals. They've all performed very well—I'm so proud of them.” She added, “Being here at the Pacific Mini Games, you know, the level of competition is so high here. There's a lot of pressure on them so they've just done so well and they just continue to make us proud.”

Tan, who spent her birthday in Palau and turned 24, collected two gold medals—one in the 10,000m and the half marathon, and a bronze medal in the 5,000m. Lyle Andrew added a gold medal of his own in the hammer throw.

For the last medal of the games for Team Marianas, the women's 3x3 basketball team gave it everything they had and made history by picking up the first-ever basketball medal for the NMI—a bronze.

They came so close to the gold medal match, just missing it by one point in a tough 11-12 loss to Fiji earlier in the day. But that didn't kill their fire. A couple of hours later, they hit the court again for the bronze medal game against Papua New Guinea and pulled off a 21-19 win in another close battle.

It was neck-and-neck the whole way, with both teams fighting hard for a spot on the podium. But in the end, it came down to clutch moments—tied at 19, all-star Alliyah Fernandez calmly knocked down back-to-back free throws to seal the bronze in their debut run.

The silver went to Tonga after they lost to gold medalist Fiji and over in the men's side, Fiji took the gold while Solomon Islands settled for silver. Host Palau finished with a bronze medal.

Alliyah Fernandez, who was named a top three all star in their conference for her exceptional performance throughout the games said of their bronze medal win, “The feeling is so unreal. You know, we came in as the underdogs being smaller but again, we wanted to emphasize that we worked hard—we worked for months—early mornings, and these girls were so young. But, we always wanted to come and play hard and so I think the girls really I'm so proud of them. They showed grit and they didn't want a let down and just making it to the medal round—once we got in, we knew we couldn't leave empty handed.”

She added, “Again, it's normal for us to feel like the underdogs, but we wanted to show that no matter what, against team Fiji—they were undefeated. Against Tonga, beating them—bigger teams, we wanted to show that it didn't matter and that all it takes is hard work and the mental strength to keep going especially with this format—it's very exhausting and so I'm very grateful the girls are pushing through and everyone gave it their all so, really, really grateful to have won the bronze.”

Yasmeen Younis, the youngest on the team, said that all the practices and early mornings were worth it. “Being the youngest on the team, I definitely had a great support system. I look up to all of them–-I'm like a sponge with them absorbing all of their skills and everything and I do my best with what I have.”

Marlene Lumabi, coach for the team said, “It feels amazing” winning the bronze. “The girls have been working so hard—we just kept playing no matter what. We told ourselves we weren't going home with nothing. We wanted it—we wanted this so bad, like you have no clue the amount of talks we have right before the game, how we wanted to prepare. We were preparing like there was no tomorrow.”

The team included Kina Rangamar, Alliyah Fernandez, Yasmeen Younis, and Kaia Travilla.

Last night was the closing ceremony, as the remaining teams from each of the 23 Pacific nations came together one last time at the Palau National Track and Field to officially wrap up the games.