Tonga

RNZ reports the rules state that athletes are meant to shoot in shorts but the 18 year old said he wanted to do something different to showcase his heritage and the judges agreed to the request.

"It gives you a bit of a boost to know, to actually feel the tradition and the culture. The last couple of days I was thinking of it and I tried it on and I shot fine in it with the wind but it was mainly just to show how proud we are to be Tongan, the team in general...there's a line called "Tongan Pride"...it had to show some of my culture, some of what we actually have in Tonga."

The 2017 edition of the OFC U-17 Championship will be held in Papeete, Tahiti in February 2017 with preliminary stage winners Samoa joining the hosts, defending champions New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

Just one side was seeded for the draw – hosts Tahiti into position A1 – with the remaining teams drawn into positions at random.

Men:

Samoa - Nevo Ioane (62kg category)

Australia – Simplice Ribouem (94kg category)

New Zealand - Richard Patterson (85kg category)

Fiji - Manueli Tulo (56kg category)

Kiribati - David Katoatau (105kg category)

Nauru - Elson Brechtefeld (56kg category)

American Samoa: Tanumafili Jungblut (94kg category)

PNG -Morea Baru (62kg) category

Women:

Samoa - Mary Opeloge (75kg category)

Australia - Tia-Clair Toomey (58kg category)

New Zealand - Tracey Lambrechs (+75kg category)

Cook Islands opened the tournament with a 3-2 victory over Tonga before hosts Samoa held on to an early lead to secure a 3-0 win over rivals American Samoa yesterday.

It wasn’t a pretty win for Cook Islands as they struggled to impose their game against their physical and fleet-footed opponents.

Highlighting increasing horticultural regional collaboration, the workshop was attended by senior representatives from Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries of Tonga (Losaline Ma’asi), the Fiji Ministry of Agriculture (Shalendra Prasad), Pacific Community (SPC) (Dr. Siosiua Halavatau), UN-FAO (Tim Martyn), the University of the Sunshine Coast and The University of Queensland (Professor Steven Underhill), and SROS (Tilafono David Hunter and Tuimaseve Kuinimeri Finau-Asora).

This coincides with the upcoming opening of its new 4 star Tanoa International Dateline Hotel in Nuku’Alofa, Tonga. 

Tanoa is a major hospitality player in the Pacific with 10 hotels in Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand and soon, Tonga. 

This makeover for Tanoa Hotels, which was founded over 50 years ago, is designed to bring the brand in line with their growing portfolio and position in the market.

The cyclone was downgraded to a category two on Monday afternoon as it moved towards Fiji's southern Lau group, but Misaeli Funaki, a forecaster at the Fiji Meteorological Service, said the storm still had damaging winds as high as 155 kilometres an hour.

The Ministerial meeting is to discuss Climate Change and its effects on the Pacific Islands especially with the Swedish Government aiming to cooperate with PSIDS in battling the many challenges of Climate Change as Swedish Minister Isabella Lovin addressed yesterday at the opening of the three days Conference at the Fa‘onelua Convention Centre in Nuku‘alofa.

“I am very proud and honoured to be the first Swedish Minister ever to visit the Pacific Island States.

The system, which has sustained winds of 150 kilometres an hour at its centre, has moved south between Niue and the Cook Islands but is now turning westward.

On its current trajectory, the cyclone is expected to pass about 300 south of Niue and be within about 400 kilometres of Tonga's main island by Friday.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Jobs in the Pacific has found that almost 10,000 jobs could be created across Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, with optimistic scenarios making that number as high as 27,000, representing more than 3% of GDP.