Elis Lapenmal is a ni-Vanuatu

Vanuatu

Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...

 sprinter

Sprint (race)

Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other...

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Competing at the World Athletics Championships in 2007, Lapenmal ran the 100 metres in 13.10 seconds. She won a silver medal at the South Pacific Mini Games, and qualified as a "wildcard

Wild card (sports)

The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:...

 entry" to represent Vanuatu

Vanuatu at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Vanuatu competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. A total of three ni-Vanuatu athletes competed in two sports. Table Tennis player Priscilla Tommy was the country's flagbearer during the opening ceremony.- Athletics:...

 in the 100 metres event at the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

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Prior to the Beijing Games, the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

described her, along with Palestine

Palestine at the 2008 Summer Olympics

The Palestinian Olympic Committee sent a team to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The Palestinian delegation consisted of two runners and two swimmers. - Athletics:- Swimming:...

's Hamza Abdu, as one of the Games' "underdogs", and as such she has also been described as a "potential successor to (Eric) Moussambani

Eric Moussambani

Eric Moussambani Malonga is a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea. Nicknamed "Eric the Eel" by the media after the name first appeared in an article by Craig Lord in The Times newspaper in London, Moussambani won brief international fame at the 2000 Summer Olympics when he swam his heat of the...

". In her first round heat in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

she placed eighth and last in a time of 13.31 which was not enough to advance to the second round.