Tongan skiers honour Queen Mother at World Ski Championships [1]
Friday, February 24, 2017 - 14:39. Updated on Sunday, March 5, 2017 - 21:11.
Tonga's Olympian, Pita Taufatofua, and Makeleta Piukala Stephan represented Tonga in their respective Cross Country Sprints race at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, Lahti, Finland early this morning, and honoured Tonga's Queen Mother.
“We are dedicating this race to Her Majesty Queen Mother Halaevalu Mata’aho who passed away this week”, said Pita Taufatofua on his facebook post.
An ecstatic Pita finished his first international Cross Country race, having picked up skis for the first time only late last year.
The 33-year-old managed to finish the 1.6km cross country sprint in 5:44:72, coming in at 153 out of 156 competitors. The winner of the race finished with a time of 3:11:72.
Pita said the goal was to complete the race in 12 minutes, as he was told it was impossible to finish it in 5 minutes, being so new to the sport.
“They don’t know team Tonga,” said Pita, who admits the race wasn’t pretty but he finished it.
The Royal Tonga Ski Federation said Pita achieved his mission – he participated in a race, finished a race, didn’t hit a tree, and finished the race under 12 minutes.
Makeleta
Taufatofua’s teammate Makeleta Piukala Stephan also competed in the ladies 1.4km Cross Country Sprints finishing with a time of 6:18:43, coming in at 105 out of 107. The winner in her race finished in 3:03:14.
Makeleta was the first to represent Tonga at the FIS World Championship in Falun, Sweden, in 2015.
Alpine skier, Kasete Naufahu Skeen competed in his first Alpine World Championship race for Tonga last week.
The three skiers will continue competing this year in their quest to qualify for the next Winter Olympics. If successful, they will join Bruno Banani, the first Tongan in history to qualify for a Winter Olympic Games. Bruno competed in luge at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.