Vanuatu athletes creating their history

The four Vanuatu athletes to the 2016 Rio Olympics are creating history according to Vanuatu Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (VASANOC) Secretary General, Cyrille Mainguy.

“Vanuatu only has four athletes, two athletes out, Yoshua Shing out in table tennis against Mexico and Joe Mahit lost in judo, but for Joe first time.

“Luijj (Teilemb)came last in his heat yesterday in rowing he still has a few regattas but like I told our athletes you being here and having qualified or having being selected to come to the games its already a victory.

“The Pacific infrastructure’s not the same you know we have our own Pacific games and now being at the Olympics for them the experience they had gathered from this is just exceptional and they competing against the best in the world,” Mainguy said.

 The fourth athlete- boxer Lionel Warawara will be fighting on Wednesday.

“I wish him all the best but same thing just go out there give it your best shot and like I tell them being at the Olympics is a great achievement coming from you know the other side of the world Vanuatu 260 thousand people what else can you expect so yeah I’m very proud of them they’ve been very good and I think are also very happy to be here.”

According to Mainguy, Luijj is the first row from the Pacific not counting Australia and New Zealand.

“You know he’s made history.

“The ones not competing can enjoy the games, enjoy the atmosphere and hopefully come home a lot more motivation to continue practising, continue improving and to try to qualify for Tokyo 2020.”      

 

Photo:ONOC