Keta Iongi

Keta Iongi

Iongi with her medals
Personal information
National team	Tonga
Born	(1947-08-05)5 August 1947 Nukunuku, Tonga
Died	22 February 2017(2017-02-22) (aged 69)
Sport
Sport	Track and field
Events	100 metres 200 metres 80 metre hurdles 100 metre hurdles modern pentathlon

Keta Iongi (1947–2017) was a female athlete who competed for Tonga at the South Pacific Games and at the British Commonwealth Games as a sprinter and hurdler and in the modern pentathlon.

Family

Keta Iongi Palu was born on 5 August 1947. She came from an athletic family. Her brother, Kei, played rugby union for Tonga and her sister, Kalasi, was also an international athlete. Her son, Wycliff Palu, played professional rugby in Australia and she was an aunt to the Australian netball player Mo'onia Gerrard, the Australian professional rugby union player, Mark Gerrard, and the Tongan rugby player Sioeli Iongi, who played in Japan.

Sporting activities

Iongi took part in the 1969 South Pacific Games in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. She won four gold medals, in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 80 metres hurdles and the pentathlon. In the 1971 South Pacific Games, held in Papeete in French Polynesia, she won a gold in the 100 metres, a silver in the 100 metres hurdles and a bronze in the 200 metres. Her sister also competed in Papeete. Iongi also took part in the 1974 British Commonwealth Games, which were held in Christchurch, New Zealand. Here she was less successful, failing to move beyond the first round of heats.

She was inducted into the Tonga National Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Death

Keta Iongi died on 22 February 2017.

Honours

National honours

• Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III, Member (31 July 2008).