The 2019 Tonga Pacific Games Organizing Committee said they could not match the scale of Papua New Guinea\u2019s hosting of the quadrennial sporting event but confirmed they are ready to put on a show.<\/p>\n
Tongan National Olympic Committee secretary general Takitoa Taumoepeau, in an interview with the Fiji Times, said that he is optimistic that Tonga will be ready to host the Games in four years time setting aside doubts by certain sectors from their community.<\/p>\n
Taumoepeau, who observed how Papua New Guinea organized the XV Pacific Games this year, added that they are aware of the size of the sporting event in Port Moresby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have 28 sports in their Games, we only have 26. Secondly, the facilities and venues, I think at our Games we are only having a couple of new projects where they\u2019ve built new facilities, but the majority of it is renovations and upgrading of facilities,\u201d said Taumoepeau.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will conduct the games within our means and with the resources we have at home,\u201d added Taumoepeau, who was part of Tonga\u2019s bronze medal-winning cricket team in the 1991 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.<\/p>\n
He said Tonga, in hosting the 2019 Games, in no way would be the same as the way it was hosted in Port Moresby. The Papua New Guinea organizing committee spent almost 60 million kina (US$23.06 million).<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say that in our bid we kind of have a thing about a walking games. What we proposed, or what we plan for in 2019, is just concentrating on two main sporting clusters. So we can work something around those kinds of principals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonga came up with the \u201cwalking games\u201d term since most of the sporting venues are within walking distance to each other.<\/p>\n
Taumopeau said that every Pacific Games has its own uniqueness, which Tonga would capitalize to show to its Pacific Island neighbors and to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
The opening and closing ceremonies alone, he added, will be Tonga\u2019s statement where it would show the culture and the country of the Pacific Island nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still remain the only constitutional monarchy in the South Pacific. So, we are proud of it. We will work around those kind of concepts,\u201d Taumopeau said.<\/p>\n
Tonga Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva, along with Tonga Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee vice president Ahongalu Fusimalohi, in separate interviews expressed concern with their country\u2019s hosting of the Pacific Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2019 Tonga Pacific Games Organizing Committee said they could not match the scale of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7075,526,196,1655],"class_list":["post-210629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-ahongalu-fusimalohi","tag-pacific-island","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-port-moresby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}