athletes

Most of the team has little or no international experience outside of the Pacific Mini-Games held last month in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The country's star athlete and medal prospect is beach volleyballer Miller Pata, who won a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

She won that medal with Linline Matauatu just seven months after giving birth to her son Tommy.

This year Pata is teamed with Shersyn Toko, with the beach volleyball event being held at a makeshift court in a regenerated part of the centre of Birmingham, England.

The Minister responsible for Youth Development and Sports, Willie Pakoa Satearoto congratulated the athletes for a great performance and for creating a historic milestone in achieving gold medals in weightlifting and men's beach volleyball.

“I am very pleased to be here to say thank you for flying our beloved flag in the Northern Marianas. Thank you for restoring pride at that time when the country went through an unprecedented challenge,” he said.

Pakoa also stated that the Government will continue to support sports development.

In the report, titled Rings of Fire, it is argued that summer heatwaves in Tokyo during the past three years indicate that conditions will be tough.

Concerns over heat have caused the marathon to be moved from Tokyo.

Professor Mike Tipton said he expects Tokyo to be the most "thermally stressful Olympics" of recent times.

The University of Portsmouth professor helped to produce the report, which was backed by athletes, the British Association for Sustainability in Sport (Basis) and scientists from the Priestley International Centre for Climate at Leeds University.

One of them is 35-year-old Tetsuya Sotomura. When I met him on a sweltering afternoon earlier this week he was still hard at it in a converted factory building in a north Tokyo suburb, flying high into the air, spinning and tumbling on a massive trampoline.

Back in 2008 Tetsuya placed 4th at the Beijing Olympics, just missing a bronze medal. Since then he's fought injury that put him out of London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. Tokyo was to be his last hurrah, a hometown Olympics to end his trampolining career on a high. But another year is just too much.

This has been confirmed by the Team Samoa Chef de Mission, Nynette Sass at a podcast training workshop for a group of journalists that is being conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Our officials will be present at the games and will walk up to athletes that won their events, say if they win gold, the official will come up to them and tap their back to tell them to take the test. If the athletes refuse, they have to have a valid reason like they have another event to attend to. If not, officials will be on their backs till they take the test,” Sass said.

The rules, which start on 1 November 2018, would apply to women who race in track events from 400m up to the mile.

The IAAF believes the new measures will stop women with high testosterone levels gaining a competitive advantage.

Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya is expected to be among those affected.

The South African runner has previously been asked to undertake gender testing by athletics chiefs but no results have ever officially been made public.

Mr Liu i talem se China i redi blong ofarem moa trening long ol best atlet blong Vanuatu blong oli save winim ol medal long taem blong gem ia.

Niu ambassada blong China, hemi mekem tok tok ia taem we hemi bin mit wetem praem minista, Charlot Salwai long yestede (Tosde).

Fa'alavelave is the Samoan tradition where family and friends contribute money or gifts to major events – pulling together to support those closest to you.

Far from a Samoan concept alone, many of the Pacific Islands adopt this communal culture based on everyone chipping in. 

Around 2,000 youngsters and teachers featured in the Ceremony, which aimed to reflect the mantra of the Commonwealth Youth Games, such as inspiration and empowerment of young people.

Following a rendition of the Samoan national anthem played by the Police band and a hymn from the Games Choir, the Opening Ceremony began with the Athletes Parade as competitors from the Isle of Man, which hosted the event in 2011, led the 63 nations taking part in the spectacle around the track.

The Commonwealth Games Federation rejected a proposal by Ghana to issue sanctions against Samoa, for denying Sierra Leone entry, at this weeks General Assembly in Auckland.

Tuila'epa says it's the responsibility of his government to put safety first for the up to 2,000 athletes participating in the fifth Commonwealth Youth games.

He says he supports the decision because his country was the worst affected by the Spanish flu, which had killed 25 percent of Samoa's population back in 1918.