ELLA: Australia's Pacific Games sevens tilt is one to watch

The 15th Pacific Games has kicked off in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It promises to be an exciting, action-packed two weeks of sport and certainly a mixture of traditional cultures.

For the first time ever, Pacific giants Australia and New Zealand are entering teams into this unique event and they will be challenged by our Pacific neighbours.

I arrived in Port Moresby on Wednesday and there’s definitely a great buzz ahead of the Opening Ceremony. I am excited to be here representing NITV, who are covering the event live.

The involvement from Australia in particular is significant, and although our team contribution of the Women’s Sevens Rugby, Sailing, Weight Lifting and Tae Kwon Do may be small in terms of the overall contribution of 24 countries, 28 sports and 3000 athletes, it will be another great test of our Australian competitive character. 

For obvious reasons, I am particularly interested in the Women’s Rugby Sevens, which features three Indigenous players – Tanisha Stanton, Taleena Simon and Mahalia Murphy. The Australian women’s Sevens teams have of course already qualified for next year’s Olympics but they will continue their development in Port Moresby when they come up against teams like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

I have been given the honour of calling both the ,en and women’s Sevens which starts on Wednesday, so expect a fair bit of excitement over the airwaves. 

For those of you that don’t know, the Pacific Games has been up and running since 1963, with the very first host nation Fiji winning the medal tally. Since then, the French territory of New Caledonia has completely dominated the Games winning the medal count on 12 of the 14 years of the event.  2015 host nation, Papua New Guinea, is the only other nation to have won the medal count way back in 1991 and in the 40th year of Independence they teams will be hard to ignore on their home turf.

All venues have recently been completed and walking through the facilities, one could be excused for being in a modern robust society – the athletes are going to really enjoy their experience.

Listening to the many languages from traditional Indigenous athletes and media representatives is exciting and sports lovers from Australia should tune into to support our teams and also to get a feel of the extraordinary talents from around the Pacific, including the Aussies, who I am sure will be on the podium at the end of their competitions. 

The favourite again is New Caledonia, who has invested heavily into its sports programs over many years but the locals will definitely give them a run for their money.

The Papua New Guineans have also been training many of their athletes in Australia under our elite trainers so it wouldn’t surprise me if they are right up there at the end of the event.

The Pacific Games will be broadcast on NITV over the next week and a half