fine 10th birthday present
pp. 24-26 · Read in the full issue
Mini Game
PNG athletes take homea a fine 10th birthday present
Top left: New Caledonia’s Brigitte Har del establishes a new long jump record.
Top right: Papua New Guinea medal lists (left to right) Kathy Rasehi (Silver long jump, Bronze 200 m), Rogot Taule (Silver 100 m, Silver 200 m), and lamo Laua (Gold heptathlon, Gold 4 x 100 m relay). Left: Brigitte Hardel displays her unprecedented haul of seven gold me dals, plus others. Right: PNG’s John Siguria (Gold 800 m). Pictures cour tesy Les Nouvelles, Noumea, PNG Post-Courier, Port Moresby.
LAWRANCE BAILEY reports from Rarotonga on the highly successful Second South Pacific Mini Games (the first was in Honiara in 1981) held in the Cook Islands in August.
Three new South Pacific Games records, and 25 Mini South Pacific Games records, fell at the Second Mini SPG in the Cook Islands in August.
Fifteen teams from around the Pacific, bringing to about 700 the number of athletes and officials, took part in the Games, with the more than 100-strong Papua New Guinea team taking home the biggest medal haul of 13 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze medals. It was a splendid birthday present for PNG, which was to mark its independence anniversary a few weeks later.
New Caledonia, which top ped the medal tally at the Mini SPG at Honiara in 1981, was second this year with one fewer gold than PNG, while the French Polynesians moved into third placing with their best haul ever of nine gold, seven silver, and 11 bronze medals.
For its relative size, the host country collected an impressive six gold and silver, and eight bronze medals, equal to Fiji’s total, with wins in rugby, net ball, athletics and women’s bowls. (The top three rugby countries at the Western Samoa SPG Fiji, Tonga and West ern Samoa did not take part in the sport at the Rarotonga Mini Games. The Cook Islands rugby team was placed fourth at Western Samoa).
The most outstanding indi vidual performance at the Mini Games came from New Cale donia’s superwoman Brigitte
Hardel, who took home an unprecedented seven gold me dals. In her quest for gold she set a new PNG record with a long jump of 6.09 m (previous record 5.91 m), and set new Mini SPG records in the 400 m and shotput.
The other new SPG records were the women’s 800 m in which Atina Sawtell of the Cook Islands set a new time of 2.17.06 (she also set a new Mini SPG record in the 1500 m with a time of 4.49.21), and PNG’s lamo Launa set a new record in the heptathlon by 20 points with her total of 4634.
Another star of the track was PNG’s fast-rising Takale Tuna who won three gold and set new Mini SPG records in the men’s 100, 200 and 400 m sprints. He now has his sights set on the Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, Fiji’s veteran Joe Rodan, who cap tained the team and is said to be aiming at a coaching career, took home a gold medal in the 400 m hurdles, in doing so breaking the previous record with a time of 54.04, silver medals in the 100 m hurdles and 400 m, a gold in the 4 x 100 relay, and a silver in the 4 x 400 relay.
The final medal tally for the Mini Games is shown in the accompanying table.
There were two new athletics events on the card at the Rarotonga Games, the women’s marathon, which was won by PNG’s Mari Lifu in a time of 3:17-12.18, and the 20
km walk, won by the Cook Islands’ Uaonga Areal in 2:01- 28.2.
The Mini South Pacific Games, held every four years, enable smaller nations of the Pacific to host a regional sports event. The major difference between the Mini SPG and the SPG is in the number of sports codes the host country must provide.
In a full South Pacific Games, countries are required to host five compulsory sports and at least four others, while a Mini Games host caters for a mini mum five sports codes.
The sports at the Cook Is lands Mini SPG were athletics, netball, rugby, tennis, bowls and golf. Tonga is to host the next Mini SPG in 1989, and has indicated that the codes will be athletics, netball, rugby, soccer, boxing and tennis.
New Caledonia is due to host the next South Pacific Games in two years time, and a final confirmation is expected to be made at the South Pacific Games Council meeting in Noumea before March next year.
If internal problems lead to the cancellation of the Games in Noumea, as was the situation with the Festival of Pacific Arts, other nations have indicated to the council that they would be ready to host the Games in 1987, one of the main conten ders being Vanuatu.
The Mini Games are esti mated to have cost the Cook Islands Government SNZI.B million for the contruction of the highly praised stadium and grandstand, and associated in frastructural development costs for such things as water, power and roading. At the same time a fund-raising committee had set
a target of $600,000 to cover the administrative costs of the Games. Fund-raising was con centrated on the main island of Rarotonga and the outer is lands, as well as in New Zea land and Australia. At the time of going to press the Games organisers were totalling up the final figure to present a financial statement of the entire event.
To become a member of the South Pacific Games, as set down in the first articles of the Games charter, countries must be members of the South Paci fic Commission.
This basic requirement has kept out of the Games the
indigenous New Zealand Maori and Hawaiian sports teams, who have lobbied in the past for membership.
The Maori Sports Federation again made a bid for observer status at the council meeting in Rarotonga, but was turned down when the council reiter ated a motion passed last year that the South Pacific Games Council will not entertain any application to participate in the South Pacific Games or Mini South Pacific Games from countries or territories of groups which have had similar applica tions rejected during the pre ceding ten years.
Final medal tally
Above left: PNG’s lamo Launa (left) and Rogot Taule. Above right: PNG’s Takale Tuna (Gold 100 m, 200 m, 500 m, Silver 4 x 400 m relay). Above: PNG’s Tau John Tokewepota (Gold 5000 m, 10,000 m, Silver Marathon). PNG Post-Courier photos.
Country
Gold
Silver Bronze
Papua New Guinea 13 12 12 New Caledonia 12 12 4 French Polynesia 9 7 11 Fiji 6 6 8 Cook Islands 6 6 8 Western Samoa 2 4 3 Wallis and Futuna 2 1 3 American Samoa 2 1 1 Vanuatu 1 4 2 Norfolk Islands 1 2 1 Solomon Islands 1 1 1 Tonga 1 — 2 • Niue, Nauru and Northern Marianas also competed at the Games but did not win any medals.