Minister of Sports looks back at Tuvalu players at SPG Samoa
By Silafaga Lalua
Minister of Sports Hon. Dr. Falesa Pitoi looks back at the recent Thirteenth South Pacific Games and comments that Tuvaluan athletes have the potential to do much better in any sport.
During the big games Hon. Pitoi observed Team Tuvalu players as very competitive in all the sports they competed in but the change of environment had a lot of impact on their performance.
He says most of the athletes had not had the opportunity to be exposed to sporting environments such as the South Pacific Games or any other similar situations before and found this Apia games as a sudden change and did not perform to their best as a result.
Minister encourages all individual sports to continue training to develop their skills in the games and also to increase their fitness, ready for the next Pacific Games 2011.
Most importantly an athlete has to decide to keep healthy and keep away from smoke, alcohol and drugs as he sees sport does not mix with all these.
It was also observed during the Samoa games that Tuvalu has great potential and can also compete in other sports, not currently being played in the country like canoeing, judo and wrestling.
Tuvalu’s inclusion in the International Olympic Committee IOC now enables funding to pour in for the development of sport in the country through the Oceania National Olympic Committee ONOC office in Fiji.
Hon minister also declared that the government is now committed to developing sports in the country from now on.
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