The 2017 Inter-Collegiate Athletics Competition will be held at Teufaiva Outdoor Stadium for four-days starting on April 25-28.

Work had already begun at the stadium to put in an irrigation system to lift the field up to standard required for the Pacific Games 2019.

Initially, the venue for the competition was not confirmed while works are underway, but now it has been confirmed that it would not have any problem accommodating the Inter-College Sports competition.

Fotu’atungua Tu’akoi the sports manager for Tupou College said today the sports will go ahead at the stadium although there were other venue options they looked at before.

The toilet facilities are under repair so we will be using portables during the competition, he said.

On Tuesday, April 25, ANZAC Day a public holiday, the competition will only be half a day. This will include the opening ceremony, school marches and a few events before concluding. The full day of competition will begin on Wednesday April 26, he said.

The annual competition brings thousands of school students from nearly all secondary and middle schools throughout Tonga to compete in field and track events.

Irrigation

At the same time, Lloyd Fletcher, Site Supervisor for Field Drainage Specialist Ltd from New Zealand contracted to do put in place irrigation and drainage system had started their work week.

He said they have now installed two new tanks for the plumbing.

We have got the plumbing through to our pump system and piece it out to the track and will stop there for now so that the athletes can go ahead with the sports next week, he said.

"The main job this week is to put in place the irrigation system and actually get water into the field either today or tomorrow for the next few weeks, so we can actually get the field up to standard."

"For the Inter College sports, we can take out the pipes that is being laid on the side of the field if we need to. We believe the kids sports comes first because we can come back and do everything afterwards, including repairs," he said.

This is the first stage there will other works to the field that will follow after the competition is held.

Contract

The Government of Tonga had through the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 10 March, signed the contract with Field Drainage to carry out these works for the Pacific Games.

Part one of the proposed works is set to be completed in June 2017, with part two set to be done in December 2017.

This project is funded through a development initiative from the Government of New Zealand. Design work for the remaining of Teufaiva Stadium is currently underway, stated the Sports Division at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.