Pacific Games

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.

Following an impressive showing from their karetekas yesterday, they were able to keep the momentum going with a commanding display that cements their fourth place spot on the overall medals table.

Joji Veremalua claimed the men’s under 75 kilograms individual kumite honours with victory over Honoiti Lien of Tahiti, while Tumu Lango continued Vanuatu’s recent medal rush with bronze.

New Caledonia’s Iwe Rene Hmana was the other athlete who clinched a podium finish, taking bronze. 

The venue was in shock as Webb began the brighter of the two players and took the opening set 11-8.

It prompted a response from Vai which her teammate could not deal with.

She levelled proceedings, winning the second set 11-1 and then claimed the third set. 

That seemed to knock the wind out of Webb’s sails as her performance slowly began to deteriorate which the ruthless Vai took advantage of, winning the fourth set by the same margin as the second to ensure she topped the podium.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat under blue skies against the home town favourites PNG A, the Vanuatu batters got off to a slow start losing 2 early wickets to be 2/7.

Top scorer Nalin Nipiko (40 off 19) and Simpson Obed combined for a good 49 run partnership giving them a platform to hit out at the end. Vanuatu posted an excellent 9/172 off their 20 overs with Kabua Vagi Morea picking up 4/20.

Rellie Kaputin won gold with a jump of 1.77 metres followed by Naomi Kerari with 1.67 metres. The bronze medal belonged to Delilah Kami who finished with a jump of 1.64 metres.

The Chief Executive Officer for the 2019 Tonga Pacific Games Organising Committee  and for Prime Minister Lord Savele said it was one of the questions asked since games are being played at the XV Pacific Games in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

“One of the issues asked of us the other day was what our response would be about sports on Sunday, we have decided we’d go back to the traditional way we’ve been running the Pacific Games and for Sunday we’ll allow everybody to rest or go to the beach but there will be no sport played on Sundays when you’re in Tonga,” said Lord Savele.

CISNOC Secretary General Robert Graham told members of the Pacific Games Council (PGC) that his country would not be able to host Pacific Games because it has no capacity to host the games.

“We won’t be able to host a Pacific Games - never. We cannot it’s too big for us,” he said.

“About 12 of us members that will only probably host Pacific Mini Games,” he said.

Graham said if the PGC changes the Mini to Youth Games it won’t get the support from the government.

Carlo in his report to the Pacific Games Council (PGC) Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea yesterday said swimming one of the major attractions at any Pacific or Oceania meet is not on the programme.

“We had discussions with the Pacific Games Council executives on deleting swimming, there’s also a big question mark on  weightlifting because you know the small countries would like to have weightlifting because its their medal winning event.”