Tongan athletes invited to the Youth Olympic Games 2014 [1]
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 22:06. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Four young Tongan athletes will travel to China next year to represent Tonga at the Youth Olympic Games 2014 in the city of Nanjing.
The Tonga Sports Association and National Olympic Committee announced on March 22 that the International Olympic Committee had confirmed allocations for two male and two female athletes from Tonga.
The sports include Middle Weight Boxing (Male), Weightlifting for under 62kg boys, Archery (female) and Swimming (Female).
Archery athlete Luis Tatafu has so far been selected for a spot, while selections will be held for the other places.
Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee, Takitoa Taumoepeau, said, “At this stage, we are only confirmed of our Universality Places from the IOC. It is then up to the responsible National Federations to identify and select its best athlete for the given place. Only archery has confirmed their athlete and others are still working on theirs.”
Takitoa said that there was still a place for other athletes and sports if they followed their programs and attended regional and international qualifying events.
Support programs in preparation for the Olympics will hopefully gear up athletes for the 2019 South Pacific Games, to be hosted by Tonga.
“We are having the Pacific Games 2019 and if these kids do well, they are going to be competitive and hopefully win medals for Tonga.”
This is the second Youth Olympic Games since its first opening in Singapore 2010. The age group for the games are youth under the age of 18 and this year over 3,500 athletes from 204 countries are expected to participate.