Dear gold medals

at Guam Games

By a staff writer

The fifth South Pacific Games will! go ahead as scheduled in Guam in August, but there are a number ofl question marks. A French mission visited the island in December to find out what was going on, because there was no answer to a number of let ters seeking information about pro gress.

The mission, which was made up of sport officials from New Gale donia and Tahiti, reported that the installations at Agana will be read\ for the games, and that visitor; would receive a warm welcome. Sc far, so good.

A lot of early enthusiasm fi> Guam as the venue is fading as com peting nations start to realise th< cost of getting there. There is opei pessimism in Fiji about the size o the team it will be able to send, be cause of the cost. Fiji could send 6 athletes and officials in a charterei aircraft for $36,140, and that is lot of money for Fiji where sport organisers repeatedly have to pu their hand out for financial suppoi for overseas teams.

However, the possibility of a joir charter with other regional territorie is being looked at closely. Mr Le Martin, chairman of the first Sout Pacific Games Council, is not sai guine about Fiji being able to sen more than a handful of people. Y< Fiji is one territory the organise: could look to to provide a nuclei of experienced games officials, wh started learning the hard way at tr first games in 1963 under the dire tion of Mr John Common, chainru of the organising committee f< those games.

A representative of Tonga sa recently that Tongan would not 1 represented, and anything more ths token representation from Nu Island is unlikely. The size of a tea from the Cook Islands will be mu mal. The only places likely to sei teams of any significant size a French Polynesia and New Ca: donia, and possibly Papua Nf Guinea.

For a number of countries t time of the games—August 9 to —is not suitable. In territories British origin, schools will still be making it difficult for teachers a top students of ability to get aw to Guam.