Pacific Mini Games

The team participated in friendly matches against women from the Australian Volleyball Federation in Canberra.

AVA said, “With Team Vanuatu having won the Bronze medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games four years ago, they come with plenty of experience, a wonderful game style, and are hoping to go one step further and make the final in Birmingham.

The association’s president, Rex Issachar said most of the athletes trying out for the final national squad have just resumed training after two months of lockdown.

“There is no local competition planed yet since all 6 and 2 municipal athlete clubs just resumed their training as well as many disturbances for athletes in school.”

“2022 was a challenging year for all athletes and other sport organisations for trainings as we all waited for the approvals of the Ministries of Health and Youth and Sport, now athletes have resumed training from where they have left off.”

Super typhoons, the withdrawal of government support and Covid-19 have disrupted the event which will now take place from June 17-25. It was originally due to be held in May/June 2021.

The hosts and Fiji lead the delegations with 125 athletes apiece.

Solomon Islands has 117 athletes while New Caledonia has 109. The smallest delegations are Norfolk Island and American Samoa with three each.

The 20 Pacific nations and territories attending and their number of athletes are:

The Beach Volleyball competition will take place from 20-24 June, as part of the nine-day regional event, and VVF will have both a women’s and a men’s team participating.

The Vanuatu National Women’s team won gold in 2017 when Vanuatu hosted the last mini-Games, as well as backing up that result in 2019, when they won in Samoa at the Pacific Games.

Association’s President, Stu McEwen said their long-term goal is to involve the sport in the Pacific competition so that the national representative teams are playing international competition every two years.

“PVDA goal is to improve the quality of darts throughout Vanuatu. The various dart playing Nations throughout the South Pacific have formed a games committee. These games are now known as the South Pacific Darts Championship.”

Peter represented the CNMI in the Pacific Games Council meeting in Samoa last year to reaffirm the commonwealth's commitment to the event.

He has been named by Governor Ralph Torres to serve as chair of the local Organising Committee.

He will be joined by a slew of officials from the CNMI's government and private sector, including Saipan Mayor, David Apatang; Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director, Priscilla Iakopo; Hotel Association Chair, Gloria Cavanagh; and the heads of the departments of Public Safety, Public Works, Lands and Natural Resources, among others.

Saipan will host the games then after a CNMI request to postpone the event until 2022 was accepted by Pacific Games Council.

The CNMI was originally supposed to hold the Mini Games in June 2021, but the Games Council requested the host nation reschedule so as not to clash with the Tokyo Olympics, which had been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The council suggested a date of December 2021 however the CNMI requested a June 2022 date which has now been approved by the 22 member-nation council.

The multi-sport event was originally scheduled to be held in Saipan in the middle of next year but has been delayed because of Covid-19, which has shut down borders and crippled the CNMI economy which is reliant on tourism.

The Tokyo Olympics have already been pushed back until July next year while late 2021 has also been ruled out because local schools will not be available to to accommodate the athletes.

Pacific Games Council CEO Andrew Minogue said they were trying to find a solution amongst a very crowded calendar.

The Micronesian country previously hosted the Games in 2005 and plan to refurbish most of their existing facilities over the next few years.

The President of the Palau Olympic Committee, Frank Kyota, said the successful bid was the result of a lot of preparation and hard work over the last 18-20 months.

The Games came to a close in Port Vila on Friday after 12 days of competition with New Caledonia topping the medals tally.

Van 2017 CEO Clint Flood admitted they had their share of challenges but he believed Vanuatu delivered a successful Games it can be proud of.

"The events went off without hitch. Behind the scenes all the operations, the transport, the catering, the villages were all done really well and the comments were that people were astounded what a level that we delivered this in Vanuatu," he said.