Pacific Games

Yesterday New Zealand Rugby announced all six New Zealand based sides would be relocating to Queenstown this weekend for the first three rounds of the competition with day games being played in Queenstown and night games at Invercargill's Rugby Park.

However, after further discussions between the teams and NZR, it was agreed to move night games to Dunedin's Forsyth Barr stadium which has a roof.

The move will add some extra travel time for the teams playing in Dunedin, as they will have to drive back to their Queenstown bubbles after each match.

The French territory previously staged the multi-sport event in 1971 and 1995, and has staged other major events, including the Beach Soccer World Cup and Va'a World Sprint and Distance Championships in recent years.

French Polynesia bid unsuccessfully to host the Pacific Games in Papeete in both 2019 and 2023, losing out to Tonga and Solomon Islands respectively.

But the Pacific Games Council's General Assembly voted in its favour at the weekend, as it beat out Vanuatu for the right to host the games for a third time.

Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee CEO, Lorraine Mar confirmed the withdrawal to national sporting federations.

Mar said the association has had to withdraw during the height of the second wave of the pandemic, as it has continued to pose adverse effects in the country.

The dates for the Games have been moved from their original slot of mid to late July 2023, to the two weeks from November 16th to December 2nd 2023.

The Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare says that in March, the Solomons Pacific Games Association submitted a paper to cabinet for their support to defer the 17th Games.

"The reason for their request is simply that delays forced upon us as the host nation by the Covid-19 pandemic had undermined our ability to complete the construction of all the facilities we require to successfully host the games," he said.

The China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) was awarded the US$25 million dollar contract earlier this year by the Chinese Government to construct the facilties for the 2023 Pacific Games, which will stretch across 14.95 hectares.

The construction work has been divided into seven projects at the King George VI precinct: the national stadium, tennis center, aquatic center, public catering area, futsal and hockey pitch, multi-purpose hall, and the running track and football field.

The Pacific Mini Games are scheduled to take place in the Northern Marianas next June, having been delayed by 12 months because of the global pandemic.

With the infrastructure and accommodation already in place, officials are closely monitoring the Covid vaccine rollout across the region and the prospect of less border restrictions.

Pacific Games Council CEO Andrew Minogue believed the upcoming Olympics would be a major litmus test.

A number of projects funded by China were scheduled to get underway this year, including the construction of a national stadium in Honiara, before the Covid-19 pandemic led to the closure of borders and travel restrictions.

The Solomons government said the construction of new venues for the Games was back on track, with a design team from China working with local authorities.

The project includes a 10,000-seat national stadium, an aquatic centre, a six-court tennis centre and a full-sized track and field venue.

The non-self-governing New Zealand territory, which has a local population of only 1500, had one self-funded athlete at the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea but a beefed-up team of 56 made the trip to Apia this year and competed in seven different sports: netball, swimming, rugby league nines, touch rugby, judo, Va'a and lawn bowls, where they won a bronze medal in the men's pairs.

The council made the decision after reviewing Team Tonga’s performance at the 2019 Samoa Pacific Games where athletes won a total of 29 medals.

TSC Chairman, who was also the Chef de Mission to the games, 'Ikani Taliai, Netina Latu and Programme Coordinator, Inoke ‘Afeaki, confirmed that the council will now focus on continuing to train athletes, prepare sporting competitions and make use of funding received.

The council will also give talented athletes a pathway where they could make a living.

This year's team returned home with the most medals ever won by Tonga at the event, 29 medals including nine golds.

After congratulating the team, a statement from Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva pointed to an earlier claim in Parliament that Tonga would achieve the highest number of Gold Medals because of government reforms around sports organisation and management.

The Prime Minister's statement came with the backdrop of a pending law suit against the Government by the Pacific Games Council for damages as a result of their belated cancellation of the event hosting.