Va'a

Steamships thanked for canoeing support

The gift was to acknowledge Steamships, as well as its marine services and harbour towage business, Pacific Towing (PacTow) for their many years of support.

The gifted paddle is particularly significant because it has the signatures of the Tahiti World & Pacific Games champions. 

Bray said that he was both honoured and delighted to receive the gift on behalf of Steamships and that supporting important cultural and sporting events such as PNG’s participation in the upcoming Pacific Games or the Hiri Moale Festival were all part of Steamships broader commitment to PNG.

Cook Island paddler Hunter gathering va’a momentum at Port Moresby 2015

Hunter, one of the Cook Islands’ top-ranked athletes in the discipline, believes the Pacific Games are as good as it gets for paddlers because va’a – or outrigger canoeing as it is also known – is not an Olympic sport.

“For us, this is the big event. This is basically it. We all want to win here,” said Hunter, who used to compete internationally in triathlon.

Hunter won the bronze medal in the women’s V1 500m race on Tuesday and will also be competing in the V1 10km on Friday and V6 20km on Saturday.

Newly crowned PNG women’s V12 champs

The PNG V12 women’s team snatched the gold from the defending champions in just 9 nano seconds.

They clocked 2 min 26:61 while Tahiti clocked 2 min 26:70 in front of PNG supporters at the Naval Lancron Bay in Port Moresby.  

The first medal for a PNG team was won by a women’s team in the 2005 Palau Mini Pacific Games.

Senior canoeist Nellie Tetaga was part of that team that won the bronze medal.

The canoeists stepped up their efforts in the 2013 Mini Pacific Games in Wallis and Futuna where the women won a silver each in the V12 500m and V6m events.

Tahiti grabs Va’a gold

New Caledonia won silver while Wallis and Futuna won bronze.

PNG came fourth in this event, conducted from the harbourside area.

This has completed the Va'a finals. V12 and V6 relays will be conducted on Saturday and Sunday at Ela Beach.

Tahiti has won gold in both men's and women's V1 Va'a racing.

New Caledonia's Titiuan Puyo won silver while Jacky Tuakafenua won bronze.

In the women's 500m V1 race, Tahiti's Brenda Vaimiti won gold while New Caledonia won silver and Cook Island grabbed bronze.

Meanwhile the women's and men's 500m V12 finals are underway.

PNG paddler misses finals

Morea clocked 3 minutes in his heat 1 event of 2:58 sec.

Jacky Tuakoifenu from Wallis and Futuna came first with 2:38 sec, Gary Volau from Fiji in second place with 2:37 sec while Ketson Kabriec from Northern Marianas finished 3rd with 2:56 sec.

Meanwhile the men's finals will be played soon.