Vanuatu and Samoa men’s football teams registered their first wins of the Sol2023 Pacific Games on Monday, each notching huge victories at a packed Lawson Tama Stadium.

Vanuatu was the first to seal victory 7-0 over underdogs Tuvalu.

Vanuatu showcased their competence early on with an opening goal from Tony Kalotang after just six minutes, followed moments later by a second from Godine Tenene.

Despite Tuvalu’s defenders putting up a strong resistance, they conceded an own goal shortly before half time to trail 3-0 at the break.

The second half saw Vanuatu extend their lead with three more goals, another each for Kalotang and Tenene plus a score for Joe Moses, sealing a convincing 6-0 win.

Australia and New Caledonia dominated day one of the judo competition at the Sol2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, winning a combined total of seven of the nine medals on offer on Monday at the SIFF Academy.

Australia didn’t need to wait long to get their first ever Pacific Games judo gold medal with Ryan Koenig beating New Caledonia’s Cedric Jaszczyszyn in the men’s 73kg final.

Danny Vojnikovich also won gold for Australia in the men’s 90kg, while Saya Middleton introduced herself to the Pacific Games podium with an impressive showing in the women’s 70kg final.

Solomon Islands : Pacific Games Open in style. 

THE first lot of Team Papua New Guinea athletes and officials arrived yesterday in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara and settled in at the King John VI High School Games Village where they will be based during the Pacific Games.
Chef de mission Faye Zina Lalo led a team of 136 athletes from three sports, officials, games management and medical team in the first chartered flight.
The second lot of the team will leave in another charter tomorrow with athletes and officials from six sports who will compete in the first week of the games.
“Today (yesterday) we had three sports travelling, that’s football (men’s and women’s team), basketball 5×5 (men’s and women’s) and table tennis,” Lalo told The National yesterday.

The PNG Government has made good its promise at the last minute to boost Team PNG’s attendance at the 17th Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
With the games opening ceremony set for next Sunday (Nov 19), the PNG Olympic Committee had called on the Government to intervene as only five of the 20 participating sport had paid their levy fees.
After all the major fund raising efforts, Team PNG’s budget for the games still fell short by K5.3 million for the 515-member contingent of athletes and officials.

The draw for the football competition at the Sol2023 Pacific Games has been made with the teams placed based on the current FIFA rankings as stipulated in the Pacific Games 2023 manual.

A total of 12 has placed in three pools for the men’s competition with Kiribati withdrawing from the competition resulting in a slight revision of the final fixtures by the Games Organizing Committee (GOC).

Group A features 2011 gold medalists New Caledonia, Tonga and Cook Islands while Melanesian heavy-weights Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu are placed in Group B alongside Tuvalu.

COUNTRY must come first as the PNG Men National Soccer squad assemble for a three week training before travelling to Honiara, Solomon Islands for the Sol2023 XVII Pacific Games
It would mean the Premier Soccer League would go into recess to allow players to commit their energy to the Honiara Games from November 19-December 2, 2023.

​The reigning champion and the Pacific Games queens, the PNG WNT are more focus on their preparations rather the outcome of the Sol2023 XVII Pacific Games.
With their mind to defend the gold medal, the WNT was under intense training with tge aim for its sixth consecutive title in the November 19 to December 2 football competition in Honiara.

​Team Solomon Islands will be the first contingent to move into camp at St. Joseph Tenaru Secondary School in Honiara as early as 14 November and continue their training for the 2023 Pacific Games.

Village Coordinator Leonard Ata’ata said so far there will be more than 600 athletes to be accommodated at Tenaru.

He said community groups were on-site as of this week and continue to do clean-up, furnish the dorms with bedding materials, and ensure all utilities to be used are set.

Ata’ata said his team was supported by 21 volunteers and will be stationed at Tenaru for the duration of the Games.

He added that their team is on-site to ensure resources and work tools needed to support service delivery teams are available on-site.

Athletic PNG has selected a final team of 24 male and 11 female athletes for the Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
President Tony Green said the team includes few new faces selected from the recent PNG Air National Championships in Port Moresby and whose inclusion is subject to the endorsement of the Justification Committee.
Reigning Pacific Sprint Queen Toea will not participate at the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
The four-time Pacific champion pulled out of the national team for unknown reasons.
Green said Wisil took this year off for personal reasons and we respect that. However, despite her (Wisil’s) absence, I’m optimistic the women's team will still dominate at the games.
“We have Leonie Beu who will carry the hopes of PNG in the women’s sprints. She has been in sensational form this year, in the 200m and 400m” Green said.