All Systems

‘Go’ For

The Games

The suggestion by an organiser of the sixth South Pacific Games in Suva that he didn’t think any other country in the region could handle them, probably wouldn’t go over too well with some of the Pacific’s more affluent countries say Papua New Guinea or New Caledonia. But it did clearly in dicate that, unless some limi tations are placed on future

games, they are only going to

be possible to stage in places like Suva, Port Moresby and Noumea. No other centre, without massive outside financial assistance, could con template the prospect.

The statistics for the Suva games, beginning on August 28

and running through to Sep

tember 8, are daunting enough: 19 competing nations, 18 sports, and a theoretical 2672 competitors a figure which is likely to shrink a little as com peting nations find cost factors forcing them to pare their teams.

The bill? Probably at lot more than Fiji thought it was

going to be when it agreed to host this year’s games. When the organising committee first got together it set a fund raising target of $F 100 000.

Now there’s talk in Suva of a bill exceeding $3OO 000. Even more frightening is the knowl edge that the SP Games lottery tickets at $2 each, are not sell ing well, and that there are now doubts about the amount of revenue from spectator ticket sales. And there’s little chance of pruning costs Fiji and the games organising committee are committed to a sporting spectacular, the like of which has never been seen in the Pa cific and which, in terms of

competitors, will be bigger

than last year’s Common wealth Games at Edmonton, Canada.

Not only bigger but prob

ably faster, much faster on the athletics track. At the heart of Suva’s Buckhurst Park national sports complex funded to the tune of $3.5 million by the Fiji Government, a surprisingly generous splurge by a cabinet

which normally keeps a tight

hand on the national purse strings is an all-weather Canadian ‘tartan’ track. Some of New Zealand’s top runners, including world record miler

John Walker, have already tried it out. Said long-distance star Rod Dixon: ‘That track would be one of the best in the world.’ This was music to local ears. Dixon continued: ‘That’s something I’ve never said about our two top venues in Christchurch and at Mount Smart .. . The new track .. . would be one of the fastest I’ve ever run on and certainly faster than anything in New Zealand and Australia.’

With that accolade. South Pacific records should be run ragged. Athletes will surprise even themselves, their own previous best times having, in many instances, been achieved under pretty rough circum stances.

Fifteen teams will be com peting on the athletics scene, 13 at tennis and soccer, 12 in volleyball, 11 in boxing and

golf, 10 in yachting, rugby and

basketball, nine in table tennis,

eight in weightlifting and judo,

seven in netball and cricket, six in squash and swimming, five in lawn bowls and four in hockey. Fiji and Papua New Guinea will contest all 18 sports and Western Samoa all but basketball.

Marshall Islands made a late bid to put in a team but entries had closed and the games com mittee saw no way of accom modating them. However one team in the games line-up, which Australia probably won ders about, is Norfolk Island.

Some see political overtones in

its participation including

some Norfolk Islanders. But basically it’s a question of phil osophy. No matter how legally Norfolk Island may be tied to Australia, as the recent Norfolk Island Act passed through the Australian Parliament in Can berra emphasises, Norfolk Islanders see themselves as part of the South Pacific com munity. Why shouldn’t they be there? Another change is Tuvalu and Kiribati entering as separate teams. In the past they have always competed as the ‘Gilbert and Ellice Islands’.

French-governed New

Caledonia is challenging the ‘Britishness’ of cricket and both New Caledonia and French Polynesia will be doing battle on the rugby field for the first time.

Fiji, as host country, is field ing the largest squad but it will be closely followed by Pacific champions New Caledonia who will be fighting to main tain their overall medals su periority, Western Samoa, who have high hopes this year, and Papua New Guinea who, by sheer size, always rank high in the final medal count.

Apart from the Hobie cata maran sailing and two soccer matches at the sugar town of Lautoka on Viti Levu’s west coast, all events, in every sport, will take place at Buckhurst Park or within four kilometres of it.

If only sporting facilities had to be provided there’d be no

problem. The big headaches

come from accommodation

and victualling logistics. ‘Vil

lages’ are lined up for competi tors and officials on the University of the South Pacific campus, at Corpus Christi College, about three kilo metres away, and a third at the Derrick Technical Institute.

How much food is needed to cope with more than 2500 com petitors and officials? The organising committee has de cided that 12 tonnes of meat and fish, 15 000 kg of potatoes, cassava and taro, 11 700 kg of other vegetables, 2600 kg of butter, 2800 dozen eggs, 25 400 litres of soup, 31 000 litres of tea and coffee and 3800 kg of sugar, should be enough.

One of the big hitches is that the games have coincided with a peak in the Fiji tourist trade making it extremely difficult to find accommodation in Suva for the hundreds of supporters who would have liked to be there to egg on their teams.

However, anyone who does come from overseas to watch the games has been guaranteed the opportunity to buy a ticket to watch events. A season ticket, to watch everything in the stadium, has been set at $5O. There’s also a $35 ticket for slightly less than the best seats. Otherwise, it’s $1.50 a day to get into Buckhurst Park and that means queueing.

Princess Alexandra will be opening the games, flying from London specifically for the event, and the end-of-games party will be held in the old

Sunderland flying boat hangar

at the lower end of the USP campus near the bay.

When it’s all over, the organising committee will start cleaning up and counting the cost. The financial picture has already been painted. The in quest could well provide the message that future games will not allow participating coun tries to bring alongas many com petitors as they can afford.

They might be told by future

hosts that there will be a limit on the number they can send.

This projection might be

somewhat gloomy. But don’t let it cast a shadow over this month’s sixth South Pacific Games. Last month, with or ganisation activities in full swing, committee members

were confidently saying that

preparations were ‘one month ahead of schedule’. Said Com mander Stan Brown, chairman of the committee: ‘lt’s all sys tems go.’

Records

Tumble

In Suva

Some indication of improved performances anticipated at the Suva Games came in the June ‘quadrangular’ athletics meeting at Buckhurst Park when athletes from Fiji, New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Solomon Islands competed.

Three national and two all comer Fiji records were

smashed. Alena Waqasiwa set a national record of 59 seconds in the women’s 400 metres event; Rusila Radinibeqa broke two national records with 11 minutes 10.7 seconds in the 3000 metres and five min utes 11 seconds in the 1500 metres; Alain Lazare of New Caledonia broke the 5000 metres all-comers record with a time of 14 minutes 55 seconds (an improvement of 4.8 sec onds); and Frederick Gassier, also of New Caledonia, set an all-comers record with a ham mer throw of 47.3 metres.

Meanwhile in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby’s Titi Christian emerged as a top games hope

with a convincing performance

against Moses Aloysius of

North Solomons in the national boxing cham

pionships. This light welter

weight took only one round to

flatten Aloysius.

Papua New Guinea has Mark Mandibi and Tony Aiam as medals hopefuls in the men’s 100 and 200 metre events.

From Papeete comes the news that French Polynesia’s

big hopes are Jeanclaude

Duhaze in shotput, discus and

hammer, Dany Guyonnet in

high and long jump, shotput

and pentathlon, and Sandra Bordes in discus. French

Polynesia also expects good

team performances in table tennis and football.

Noumea reports suggest that the territory’s young athletes are determined not to be overshadowed by their former

champions. They plan to be

well among the medals in ath

letics, volleyball, judo, tennis,

table tennis and football.

There’s no forecast on how New Caledonia’s cricketers (males) will go. It’s a game in New Caledonia which, hith erto, has been confined to the girls.

Games hopes, from left: Solomon Islands’ Matthew Hovaisuta, long distance, and Jim Marau, sprint; Fiji’s Usaia Sotutu, 800 to 3000 metres, and Samu Yavala, sprint; New Caledonia’s Brigitte Hardel, sprint and long jump, and Alain Lazare, long distance; Guam’s Peter Cruz, boxing; and PNG’s Nettie Elisha