Now that formalities are done and dusted, it’s time to for the games to begin.   

Yesterday, Athletics kicked off their events at Apia Park with over 30 participants. 

Beginning with an opening ceremony and few encouraging words for the participants, it was off to the races (literally). 

Athletics will field several different events over the course of the week,  beginning with the javelin, 200M, 3,000M,800M, Long jump, shot put, hurdles, and relay races.

Samoa Association of  Sports and Olympic Committee’s sports coordinator, Tagifano So’onalole spoke to the Samoa Observer about the exciting events taking place this week for athletics.  

“Most of the athletes here are part of the development squad for Athletics Samoa.  Mostly looking at about 15 years old.  Theres a guy who entered who was born in ’74. So you’re looking at a wide age range.”

The competiton will be tough as athletes go up against friends and classmates, but will pose as a great learning curve for local athletes. 

“This is probably going to be for some of them, their first real competition. 

A lot of the guys that are here with the development squad were here with the Commonwealth Youth Games, last year. For some of them, this is their second competition but for some they are brand new.  I know they’re nervous,”Ms. So’onaloloe stated.  

“Theres about 30 of them in the development squad.  Some have been consistent some have been inconsistent because they have other commitments and they just had exams so they kind of just slacked off a bit.  But now they’re all back.”

Now ready and raring to have a go on the track, all the athletes are excited to be competing amongst one another.  

 “I know they’ve been given targets of what time they need to run.  So they’ve been working towards beating that goal.  Most of these guys are about the same level.  This will be a good test for some of these guys to see how they fare with each other, “Ms. So’onalole stated.