The Methodist Church will be paid $4 million (US$1.5 million) for hosting up to 3500 athletes at its Faleula complex.
 
Pacific Games Office Chief Executive Officer, Falefata Hele Matatia, confirmed the payment when discussing the cost of the July 2-22 regional sporting event with reporters.
 
He said all the contracts connected to the games have been confirmed.

The Tahiti Olympic Committee will handle the selection of athletes in rugby and boxing, which both have competing federations in the territory.
 
The Vice President of Tahiti's Olympic Committee, Charles Villierme, said athletes from the rival federations in both sports will compete against each other to determine who will represent Tahiti in Apia. 

It is a pity the host country has not included softball in the upcoming South Pacific Games in Samoa in July this year, says the president of the second biggest softball competition in PNG.
 
Lindsay Pulu, a former PNG Softball international and current president of Lae softball made the remarks, adding the situation was out of PNG’s control. 

The Interchange Vanuatu Rugby League (VRL) was last week advised by the Vanuatu Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (VASANOC) that the VRL have been removed from Team Vanuatu for the upcoming Samoa 2019 Pacific Games.
 
The decision was due to over subscription of the limited spots available on the charter plane, meaning VASANOC was forced to cut numbers and based on the Sport Criteria, the VRL were unfortunately removed along with a number of other sports.  

The reigning Pacific sprint king, Banuve Tabakaucoro, has clocked a time of 21.25 seconds in the 200m to qualify for July’s Pacific Games in Samoa.

After the race at the ANZ Stadium in Suva this week, Tabakaucoro said he’s eyeing to hit the qualifying time for the 100m event.


The national 100m and 200m record-holder is making a return to athletics after a rugby injury in 2017 nearly ended his career.

He is aiming for gold in Samoa, although his ultimate objective remains to qualify on merit for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

“The qualifying time was actually 21.4s and I’m happy to have finished the race in 21.25s,” Tabakaucoro said.
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Organisers of the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia in Samoa have confirmed a "compound" owned by the country's Methodist Church will act as an Athletes' Village.

Originally the plan was to house all athletes in hotels but the vast majority will now stay in accommodation provided by the Methodist Church in Faleula.

From December 6th to 7th, members of the Government of Solomon Islands, the Honiara City Council, the National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands (NOCSI) and the Pacific Games Council (PGC) participated in the inaugural meeting of the Solomon Islands 2023 Pacific Games National Hosting Authority (NHA), in Honiara.

Pacific Games plaintiffs who are trying to sue the Kingdom of Tonga for multimillion pa'anga damages over its cancelling of the Pacific Games hosting in 2019, have been given leave to amend their claims, after the Chief Justice found their statement of claim was defective.
 
The defendant, the Kingdom of Tonga, had applied to strike out / or stay the plaintiffs claims. 

The Pacific Games in July next year could strain Samoa’s national health and medical services, says Minister of Health Tutaima Dr. Leao Tuitama.  
 
He was responding to questions, on whether the Ministry of Health is prepared to cater for the 4000-plus athletes and officials, who will travel to Samoa next year for the region’s two-week sporting event.    
 
“Of course facilities are provided, but personnel are vital in the programme because games need medical assistance to oversee it,” he said.