Pacific Games

Fiji beat Vanuatu 4-3 in penalty shoot outs tonight at the Sir Hubert Murray stadium.

More To come..

However, according to PGC Executive Director Andrew Minogue there’s still some work and convincing to do before it fully becomes a recognised games for the region like all other continents.

“We have Australia and New Zealand here and some of the sport are really using the Games now to qualify for the Olympics or World Championships and we have to deliver to a certain standard,” said Minogue.

The car park is jampacked with cars and buses slowly circling to find a vacant space.

Inside the shopping centre, there are lots of people gazing at the shops and passersby ,but the real crisis is in the parking area.

Drivers who gave up on finding a space are also taking a long time to get out, with passing by traffic on Waigani Drive and Sir John Guise Drive preventing them from getting out quickly.

A bumper crowd turned up to watch the match with a high number of Guam supporters.

Fiji got off to a good start leading in the first quarter 17-15 but Guam bounced back in the second quarter to take the lead by 10 points at half time, 36-26.

Guam dominated the rest of the game with three pointers coming from Jesus Cruz taking Guam to 51-44 at the end of the third quarter.

Both teams put up a great challenge and entertained the crowd in the final quarter as the countdown began to full time.

Dominating possession for most of the first half, PNG eventually got a result in extra time through scoring machine Meagen Gunemba who fired a shot into the nets after a good cross from Georgina Kaikas.

The downpour did not help both sides especially Cook Islands who could not get past PNG's solid backline.

PNG got their second goal early in the second half after a shot deflected off the gloves of Cook Island's goalkeeper Marjorie Toru and onto PNG'S Fatima Rama who booted it in.

From this point, PNG turned to defence to steer them home to a 2-0 win.

Winning the toss, the Samoans went into bat first and got off to a bad start as the first 3 wickets fell in close succession for only 13 runs.

This brought to the crease, captain Regina Sela Monika Lili’i who momentarily turned their innings around smashing 30 runs.

But her dismissal brought about a batting collapse as the rest of the batting order all scored below 20 runs.

After the full 20 overs bowled, Samoa finished at 9/103.

PNG’s Tanya Ruma was phenomenal picking up 3/11 followed by Norma Ovasuru who finished with 2/8.

He spoke to Loop PNG straight after the completion of the XV Pacific Games power lifting competition yesterday.

"All 15 athletes won medals," Haoda said.

PNG collected 8 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze in the 15 weight divisions for both male and female.

Haoda added that his troops effort were unbelievable because they were without a coach till April this year.

"The coach ( Scott Upstod) did wonders in preparing the team within two months."

Haoda also thanked PNGPF sponsors KK Kingston, SP Brewery and PNGOC - Go gold program.

Tahiti, who won gold at the 2011 Games, led throughout the match.

In the first quarter, Tahiti easily scored to lead 21-12 against the weak defense by the home girls.

Tahiti maintained their lead in the second quarter, 35-25.

Defending champion Fiji and PNG are the two undefeated teams, with two more rounds to play today.

PNG’s avalanche of tries was started by Salias Gahuna from the back of a break from Captain Isreal Eliab.

Then PNG winger Bland Abavu fended off a Solomon Islands defence to score.

With the crowd chanting, PNG ran in three more tries.

Thompson Teteh (2 tries) and Ase Boas scored runaway tries to get PNG to 28-0 at the drinks break.

In the second half, PNG piled on three more tries.

Rex Yallon, Willie Minoga and Boas double for the match.

This was possible after Solomon Islands defeated Nauru late yesterday.

PNG will now take on Tahiti.

The teams are warming up for the match at the PNG Power Dome.

The crowd is building up fast to watch this match.

Tahiti took out gold at the 2011 Games.           

PNG will be banking on key players Betty Angula, Nesta Sape and Captain Marcia Muri.