The Vanuatu Paralympic Committee (VPC), officials, athletes and coaches have unanimously agreed to withdraw Vanuatu’s entry from the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
The decision is based on considerations of the physical and mental well-being of Vanuatu’s parathletes and accompanying officials combined with the rapid spread of COVID-19 Delta virus and the potential onerous financial liability of being caught in additional unplanned quarantine of a return route.
Henry Vira, Director General of Vanuatu’s Ministry of Youth Development and Sport, has been consulted and fully supports the withdrawal of Vanuatu’s team from the Paralympic Games, citing his own growing concerns for the safety of the team, “I understand the complexities with arranging participation in these Games and stand by the VPC in its call to withdraw from the Games,” he said.
“Safety is paramount for everyone!”
VPC president Margaret MacFarlane said, “At our meeting we decided to pivot and refocus our efforts this year on the Secondary School Games, the National Games in Malekula in November and a strong provincial outreach program to identify new para athletes. With stronger vaccination outcomes, hopefully global travel and flight availability will become easier.
“Our big international focus will be the Commonwealth Games in September 2022 at Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Then in 2023 we have the Arafura Games in Darwin Australia and the Pacific Games in November 2022 in the Solomon Islands. Then of course it’s the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.”
The Vanuatu Paralympic Committee extended it sincere thanks to the technical support team in Tokyo; the Nippon Sports and Science University for its technical and training contributions; to the Oceania Paralympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
“The Vanuatu Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee (VASANOC) has provided on-going assistance,” MacFarlane stated.
“The VPC is very grateful for funding support for preliminary training from the IPC and the AGITOS Foundation, the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and our corporate, NGO and private supporters in Vanuatu such as Daniel Agius from iCount, ASCO Motors and the Carbine Club.
“We have a very young team of talented, world-class parathletes. Both the Commonwealth Games, Pacific Games and Paris Paralympic Games 2024 are really not so far away. By refocusing we will have a broader base of sports and parathletes.
“As DG Vira has stated, the well-being of our athletes, coaches and officials must be our paramount concern.”
Photo supplied Caption: VPC Parathletes, Ken Kahu (centre) and Marcelline Moli (right) have been preparing for the global event