Taiki Paniani (born 22 February 1996) is a Cook Island international

lawn bowler Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

Bowls career

He was born in

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

and was selected as part of the Cook Islands team for the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

in Queensland where he reached the semi-finals of the

Pairs Concentration, also known as Memory, Shinkei-suijaku (Japanese meaning "nervous breakdown"), Matching Pairs, Match Match, Match Up, Pelmanism, Pexeso or simply Pairs, is a card game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and tw ...

with

Aidan Zittersteijn Aidan Zittersteijn (born 8 September 1999) is a Cook Island international lawn bowler. Bowls career He was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand and was selected as part of the Cook Islands team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast ...

. They then claimed a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

after defeating Malta in the play off to win the first ever medal for the nation. In 2019, he won a gold medal at the

Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games were ...

in the fours event. In 2023, he was selected as part of the team to represent the Cook Islands at the 2023 World Outdoor Bowls Championship. He participated in the men's pairs and the men's fours events.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paniani, Taiki 1997 births Living people Bowls players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in lawn bowls Commonwealth Games medallists for the Cook Islands Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games