Commonwealth Games

The pressure is on Blake to fill the huge void left by sprinting icon Bolt's retirement from athletics following last year's IAAF World Championships.

The eight-time Olympic gold medallist, the world record holder over 100 and 200 metres, playfully suggested to his former Jamaica team-mate that failure on the Gold Coast will land him trouble.

"Usain Bolt was at the track in Jamaica before I left," Blake told the media upon his arrival in Australia. "He said: 'If you don't win there is going to be problems.'

Among the outstanding stars at the Vanuatu Games is 17-year-old Samoan weightlifter Fegaiga Stowers, who set a new Commonwealth record in the women's 90kg class by lifting 108kg in the snatch, 131kg in the clean-and-jerk for a 239 kg total.

Papua New Guinea's Stephen Kari secured all three gold medals in the men's 93kg category by lifting 155kg in the snatch and 195kg in the clean-and-jerk.

International weightlifting referee Lilly Coffa, a trainer at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in New Caledonia, says the athletes are ready for the Commonwealth Games.

Last week Whittaker, who was already the interim middleweight champion, was given the overall title after mixed martial arts legend Georges St-Pierre vacated due to health reasons.

The New Zealand-born Australian, Australasia's first UFC champion, has been scheduled to headline UFC 221 against American Luke Rockhold in Perth in February, which comes just under two months before April's Commonwealth Games.

Whittaker has already qualified for the 97kg wrestling division at the Games following his win at the Australian wrestling trials last month.

The idea amongst others was raised at the Trade 2018 GC2018 briefing held by representatives from the Office of the Commonwealth Games, Queensland Government, Lisa Ward and Yasmahne Hanel for invited guests at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland last week.

A record eight women's teams are competing this year and for hosts Fiji the goal is straight forward - trying to regain the title they won two years ago.

The Fijiana play Samoa and Tonga in their first two pool matches but captain Ana Maria Rociqa said they already have an eye on their final match of the day against the defending women's champions.

"We have Australia in our pool game. We played against them at Central Coast (two weeks ago) in the quarter finals and we lost," she said.

The schedule of sporting events has been released and for the next month people are being encouraged to consider which events they would like to attend.

This will only become a reality as long as they train and attend competitions to meet the minimum qualification standards.

That includes top athletes and 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Dika Toua and Steven Kari who missed out on the recent Rio Olympics.

This is the word from Papua New Guinea Weightlifting President Sir John Dawaninicura in an interview with Loop PNG news yesterday (Saturday) in Lae.

Under a new proposal adopted by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) at its General Assembly here yesterday, host cities must in future include 16 core sports as part of the programme and then can choose as many as they want from a list of optional sports and disciplines as long as it does not exceed a further 500 athletes.

Rowing had been on the previous list of optional sports but has now been dropped, leading to Annamarie Phelps, the chairman of British Rowing, to launch a campaign to save it.