Pacific Games

Seventeen sports teams will travel to Honiara to compete and each participant is required to pay 50,400 vatu by this month to the Solomon Islands organising committee as their participation fees.

Team Vanuatu Chef De Mission, William Worworkon, said they are also looking at sending athletes overseas to train and prepare for the Games which are being held in November.

The team will go through a seven day program in the Gold Coast, where they will receive expert coaching from Australian mentors.

The netballers will also participate in high level trial games against semi-professional franchises and other Pacific teams.

Solomon Islands National Institute of Sports performance manager Amanda Korinihona says the tour will be "a great experience for them to perform as a team on international level".

Eight Honiara-based players left the capital city on Monday, while the rest are expected to join the team on Wednesday.

Pacific Games Council Chief Executive Officer Andrew Minogue told RNZ Pacific the Pacific Games Organising Committee would produce the programmes and have the selected broadcasters share that in their respective countries reports RNZ Pacific.

"We have basically settled on a model that is like the traditional model that we've employed in previous Games where the Organising Committee will sort of put it all together in-house and then contract with different regional broadcasters, for example, Fiji TV in Fiji or France Television for the French territories," Minogue revealed.

On 24 March, World Athletics announced new regulations that would completely bar transgender male-to-female athletes from participating in its competitions.

The governing body also announced stricter restrictions on athletes with DSD which is expected to impact champion Olympic athletes.

"Our position is quite simple," council president Vidya Lakhan told RNZ Pacific.

"So, we are always guided by the respective international federations.

President Vidya Lakhan and Chief executive Officer Andrew Minogue visited Honiara last week to assess preparations for the 17th Pacific Games.

The delegation visited several of the Games venues, including the main Sports City precinct and the accommodation construction site at the Solomon Islands National University.

They were briefed on the status of works on the main road into the city, the near completion of the new international airport terminal, and the recent "Safe and Green Games" launch.

Vanuatu Weightlifting Federation said the highlight of this year’s games is that they will be taking two female lifters.

This was confirmed by VWF President, William Worworkon.

Currently, there is only one female lifter, Ajah Pritchard-Lolo in the sport.

Ajah represented the country in weightlifting in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

She represented Vanuatu at the 5th ONOC Athletes Forum from 22nd to 24th September 2022 in Fiji.

The federation is yet to confirm the second female they will be taking to the Pacific Games.

FBC reports Chef de Mission Ajay Ballu saying these two sports had some issues that could not allow them to be part of the contingent.

In terms of bodybuilding, he said they have a governance issue and did not have an AGM.

And, he added, judo missed the bond payment deadline.

Ballu said all federations had been informed well before time of the regulations and deadlines and they will not be lenient this year.

He confirmed that the nation will be represented by 27 sports at the Honiara Pacific Games that will be held in November and December.

The Games Organising Committee partnered with The Nature Conservancy to track the movements of leatherback turtles from their feeding to their breeding grounds.

Inside the Games reports one of those being tracked, Solo, nested five times at Haevo nesting grounds in Isabel Province in the Solomon Islands between November 2022 and early January, before migrating eastwards through Malaita, Makira and Temotu Provinces.

According to satellite data, Solo arrived in Luganville in Vanuatu last week after a journey of 16 days.

In Vanuatu, in particular, budding throwers are keen to follow in the footsteps of world champion Michael Smith and world number one Michael van Gerwen.

The South Pacific Darts championship will take place in Tonga from Wednesday with female and male competitions.

The semi-finals and finals will be held on Thursday and Friday.

The championship was postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Port Vila Darts Association formed five years ago and has become the central organisation for the sport in the South Pacific.

On the men's side, the countries that qualified for the tournament are Guam, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.

On the women's side Guam, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, The Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Samoa, French Polynesia and New Caledonia are set to play.

The Pacific Games serves as a qualifying event for the Asian Cup and in turn for the FIBA World Cup.

The Games are scheduled to begin on November 19.