Oceania Championship for Sailing to Coincide with Pacific Games

The Oceania Championship for sailing will coincide with the Pacific Games in Samoa this July. 12 countries are expected to participate in the competition in the Hobie Cat, Laser and Laser Radial events, in Mulifanua. The men's and women's divisions will be split over the two weeks of the games to account for sailors attending a qualifying competition in Japan.

Raema von Reiche, president and coach of the Samoa Sailing Association (SSA) said Fiji, Cook Islands and New Caledonia are strong competitors and will have Samoa on their toes. On Sunday, the SSA will welcome their new coach from Poland. He will work full-time towards preparing the athletes for the game. The new coach will ensure that the athletes get plenty of hours on the water at Mulifanua.

Competition Manager, Paul Davies said SSA had rejected their initial application for funding and suggested they reapply with a smaller request, which they did but have not received any feedback. Davies said the training money they applied for was to give the sailors overseas competition because there is no competition in Samoa. "We need to be putting them up against the best New Zealand has to offer. Reiche said its about getting that experience of having 12 boats on the starting line. "You need that feeling of getting pressured, of starting with a lot of boats. And sometimes there are 25, 30 boats and all the ones who have done lots of competitions before will move you out of the way, there is a lot of jostling."

Davies said all in all, it was disappointing not to get feedback for the funding, or any explanations for the same.