Tonga team arrives at Sochi [1]
Friday, February 7, 2014 - 16:30. Updated on Friday, February 7, 2014 - 16:32.
Tonga team from left, Leafa Wawryk, Lady Robyn Tu'ivakano, Bruno Banani, Isabel Barschinski, Mathias Ihle and Takitoa Taumoepeau
The Tongan team, consisting of Bruno Banani, his coach, Isabel Barschinski; the Chef de mission, Mathias Ihle; the admin personnel, Leafa Wawryk; the President of TASANOC, Lady Robyn Tu'ivakano and the Secretary General of TASANOC, Takitoa Taumoepeau. The Tongan team was welcomed into the village together with teams from Romania, Chile, Tajikistan and Croatia.
The Games Opening Ceremony will take place today, 7 February. Sochi is nine hours behind Tongan time.
Tonga’s first winter Olympian Bruno Banani will compete in luge on February 8-9.
Tonga’s Chef de Mission Mathias Ihle said Team Tonga’s presence in Sochi is a realization of a dream founded several years ago and some 10,000km away in the warm and oceanic weather of the South Pacific. "The dream has made all of us proud and so as the people of Tonga", he said.