Preparations for the Pacific Mini Games medal ceremony presentations took a big leap forward last week, with the completion of 50 podiums ready to be used for medal presentations.
Van2017 contracted Vanuatu Institute of Technology to build the podiums that will be used by athletes when receiving their medals.
VIT students spent almost two weeks to build these podiums, which are planned to be placed at each sports field of play, mainly at Korman Venue. At the end of last week, they were stocked at the warehouse, waiting for final touches before December.
Sailosi Rezel from Van2017 Venues Department explained that few additional ramps were also constructed to accommodate athletes with disability to access podiums for medal presentations.
Vanuatu will host for the first time Para Games such as Para Athletics and Para Table Tennis.
Asked if podiums will be placed at each Games Venue, Mr Rezel said they will all be placed at Korman venue, and in the case of any medal presentation in any venues outside Korman, the Van2017 workforce group will be responsible to move in and out the necessary podiums to the required venue.
“Why we are having a high number of podiums is simply because we have some special requests from other functional areas, to have some podiums to use for a mini stage in several sports competitions, such as Judo,” he said.
Under this contract, VIT is also engaged in constructing 15 Targets Buds stands for Archery competitions, which were the only ones that are not ordered and purchased overseas.
“Normally, all equipment to be used in a Pacific Games or Mini Games has to be authorised and approved by respective International federations, because they have to meet international sport requirements,” explained William Worwor, Manager of Sport Department.
“In the case of Archery, we received Technical Delegate who came to assess the preparations of the sport competition, and see how best cost effective to have archery equipment at the Games. After the consultation, Van2017 got the authorisation from Archery International Federation, to construct locally stands for Archery Buds. We cannot do anything on ourselves, all equipment is to be provided by the authorised suppliers to meet international requirements and all must get the approval from international federations.”
For Van2017, engaging local communities particularly, as well as training Institutions, is giving them an opportunity to be involved in the Games, to make them feel they own it, they belong to the Games, and they were given a chance to provide a service, that will be seen as a legacy.
Photo supplied