The success of Tonga’s athletes at the recent Pacific Games held in Samoa where 29 medals were won, will now see Tonga Sports Council (TSC) planning for more sports development - so Tongan athletes can reach their peak performances in the future.

This morning, 30 July, TSC Chairman, 'Ikani Taliai, Netina Latu (Chef de Mission for the Pacific Games), and TSC Program Coordinator, Inoke ‘Afeaki, confirmed that TSC will now focus on continuing to train athletes, preparing for sporting competitions in the future, making better use of the funding received, and to give talented athletes a pathway where they could make a living.

“I’ve done that for my career and there’s no reason why we can’t do that for more kids in Tonga,” said Inoke, who is a former Rugby Union player.

Ikani Taliai said the TSC will provide recommendations to the government to continue preparing athletes for future competitions, such as the next Pacific Games, World Championships, Rugby World Cup, the Olympics, and more. 

“We know that if the focus is on the athletes, they will succeed." 

Success

Tonga gave its best performance ever at the games held in Samoa, said Netina Latu.

“We were successful in 11 sports at the games. In the 2015 games held in Papua New Guinea, we won medals in eight sports and now we have improved.”

Tonga came away with 29 medals, including 9 Gold, 5 Silver, and 15 Bronze medals with the majority won by local athletes who live and train in Tonga. This was an increase from the 17 medals (7 Gold, 1 Silver, 9 Bronze) won at the 2015 Pacific Games held in Papua New Guinea.

Inoke said six of the nine Gold medals were won by local athletes, three from taekwondo and three from athletics, while other local athletes won 20 of the other medals.

Other medals were won by athletes based overseas, and there were also a mix of overseas and local athletes in teams such as netball and rugby sevens (both won medals).

“And we have a lot of other sports that came in a close 4^th or 5^th in their events. They weren’t very far behind the bronze. So, we’ve pushed all the athletes up to be more competitive and that’s a good direction,” he said.

New training program

The increase in performance or success at the games was attributed to a new program run by TSC prior to the games where athletes undertook strength and conditioning and aerobics exercise routine.

“We started the focus on fitness, more specifically aerobic fitness. When I arrived in the country in 2017 for the South Pacific Mini Games, it was clear to me that our athletes were not fit, far from it. So, we had three months to put them on a program, which is actually a continuous one where fitness can be built over the years,” said Inoke.

“We’ve clearly shown that the three months program that we ran really worked well.”

“If you have a look at all the teams, they were competing right to the end. Even if they just lost, they were there at the end still going hard.”

However, Inoke said although the program increased athletes’ fitness level from their base level they are not far off their base level.

He added they have a lot more statistics on the athletes’ performance which would be studied and used to find out ways of doing better next time.

“Because in my view, we’re at 50% capacity at the moment and we can double this next time. But that’s if we have the right preparation and the right funding.”

He also added that during the games, a lot of effort was put in by TSC staff including Netina Latu, who worked day and night making sure athletes were looked after so they could focus on their events.