15 sports codes announced for Pacific Games

Team Cook Islands athletes will compete in 15 codes at the New Caledonia Pacific Mini Games in August.

The 15 codes are athletics, beach volleyball, boxing, body building, cricket, football, golf, rugby sevens, sailing, squash, swimming, tennis, triathlon, oe vaka and weightlifting.

Team Cook Islands chef de mission George George says that the 15 codes were selected after one-on-one meetings with local national federations which had met the CISNOC high performance criteria’s.

The final Team Cook Islands athletes will be named 60 days out from the Pacific Games scheduled to be held between August 27 and September 10.

George says that he’s been pleased to see a number of athletes that have been out training and preparing for the August games.

The sports development unit at CISNOC will be working closely with codes to help develop training programmes and schedules and George says he is keen to retain world renowned trainer Keith Roberts, currently with the national sevens rugby team in Wellington, to help prepare Cook Islands athletes.

“I’m very serious in ensuring that we pick the best of the best athletes to represent the country at the games and this is where Keith (Roberts) can help us,” says George.

As chef de mission, George is likely to travel to New Caledonia in March to inspect the athletes village and game venues of which most are ready for the games.