ELEVEN athletes from Wallis and Futuna will represent the tiny Pacific Island nation at the Melanesian Games which starts tomorrow.
The all male team is using the event as a platform to prepare for the Tuvalu Mini Games which, according to their coach Salomone Hanisi, is one event they’ve been dominating for the last three years.
One of their star athletes, Tauvale Magoni, said each member of the team had to fork out more than $1000 to be able to travel to Fiji for the much anticipated game.
“Most of us are still in high school, we’re hoping we can improve our personal bests in this meet,” Magoni said.
Magoni was quite straight forward when he mentioned the team knows they may not bag any gold medal at all but they’re hoping for a good outing.
Magoni will be competing on both field and track events, in the senior javelin and 4×100 metres relay.
“Our chances of winning medals are very slim, but we just want to prepare for the Tuvalu Mini Games, for us to prepare mentally and also to gain experience for that meet,” he said.
Asked why there were no female athlete in the side, Hanisi with the help of Magoni said women from Wallis and Futuna were not so serious about the sport.
“Most of them do not like to race, and secondly some of our athletes could not make it because they could not afford the return airfare,” Hanisi said.
