Pacific Games

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“We are sorry to see friends leave our shores and we thank you for taking part in these outstanding Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea,” PM O’Neill said.

“If you are a visitor, I hope your time in Papua New Guinea, and at these Games, will be among the proudest memories of your lifetime.

“We have witnessed outstanding competition and displays of sporting friendship.

“It was great to see the way athletes from different places and languages could break down barriers and congratulate each other and even cheer for their competitors.

“I’m very happy, even though I finished third, but this is the first time for me to compete in this event . It was very challenging,” Nand said.

“Athletics Fiji has been very good to me.”

He finished third with a time of 9:57 minutes behind Sapolai Yao who won gold and Skene Kiage won silver medal
Meanwhile, Athletics Fiji won two gold medals and one bronze medal on Monday.

Shop N Save Athletics Fiji President Joseph Rodan Senior said things went as planned.

With a packed crowd this evening at the Caritas Hall Aisaga put up  a strong fight defeating Alfie Lai Pongi Junior of SI.

In a three rounds bout, Aisaga defeated Pongo in round 2 in a technical knockout.

So far all PNG boxers have made it through to the finals.

In the best of three, PNG have won 2 out of 3 games which has secured gold for them. American Samoa settled for silver.

PNG scored early in the game and by the bottom of the third inning were up 3-0. PNG’s power batters in Florence Daple and Beverly Pasen kept the scoreboard ticking, bringing runners home.

Another slugger in Nadia Bais brought two more runners home through a line drive to bring the score to 7-0.

The game was called off at the bottom of the fifth inning after the mercy rule was applied.

The Fijians proved they are number one in the Oceania region hockey maintaining their dominance in the competition with their third straight win.

And they did a good job keeping the local team scoreless in the first two periods of match.

The Fijians registered their first score in the first minute of the game from Terrence Corrie.

The local boys missed a lot of opportunities to score in the first period with hits either too wide or high against the fierce Fijian team.

Three of the eight runners in the finals tonight were Papua New Guinean- Betty Burua, Donna Koniel, and Pacific sprint queen Toea Wisil.

The crowd erupted as Wisil led the way from the start and finished first with a time of 54.17s.

Next in was Donna Koniel with 54.29s.

Betty Burua came flying in third for bronze clocking 55.21s.

Inspired by the win earlier by the PNG women’s 400 metres trio plus a vocal home crowd, it was now the men’s turn to emulate the feat.

Led by non-other than the flamboyant Nelson Stone, there was no stopping PNG as Kaminiel Matlaun and Theo Piniau joined Stone in the race to the finish line.

Stone came in first in a time of 47.56s. Piniau finished second on 48.08s.

The bronze went to Matlaun who clocked 48.43s.

Last week the government had to front up the travel bill for 59 remaining athletes whose federations failed to pay their air fares to Papua New Guinea to compete in this year's Pacific Games.

The Minister of Youth, Employment and Sports, Fe'ao Vakata, says the Tonga Amateur Sports Association and other federations were disorganised and it's the last time the government will front up travel money due to their lack of preparation.

Vakata says the Ministry will work on setting up a separate institute of sports for Tonga alongside criteria for selected federation members.

“Yes, my first trip here, I’m very pleased and also to be here for the Pacific Games is very important for FIH to follow these championships are very important.

“The turf is fantastic, yeah. Its like the Olympic pitch in London, we are very pleased, here you have a full nice venue and after talking with the Minister of Sports we are very glad because we have a plan to allocate here a lot of hockey tournaments,” said the Spaniard.

Hockey makes a return to the Pacific Games after a lapse of 36 years. It was last competed at the 1979 South Pacific Games in Suva, Fiji.