Te Au O Tonga take Kumete

Vaka Te Au O Tonga took out this year’s Kumete Trophy thanks to the athletes from Avatiu-Nikao and Tupapa-Maraerenga.

The annual inter-village athletics competition was another intimate affair with a small but energetic group of athletes taking part in yesterday’s track and field events.

The annual sports event got underway on Saturday with the round island cycle race before yesterday’s full day of sports at the BCI Stadium in Nikao.

The competition is suppose dto be between athletes of the six villages on Rarotonga but due to the small number of people taking part it was decided that villages join together as a vaka for the competition.

So, after a day of athletics, with the high jump and shot put events proving very competitive, vaka Te Au O Tonga emerged as the winner of this year’s Kumete Trophy with a total of 785 points.

Second place went to Vaka Takitumu with 365 points while Puaikura, who have dominated the past four years of Kumete sports, managed to earn 207 points.

Had the villages remained as such for the competition and not combined into vaka – Avatiu-Nikao would have won outright with a total of 396 points closely followed by Tupapa-Maraerenga on 336 points and then Titikaveka on 218, Arorangi 178 and Ngatangiia-Matavera on 94 points.

A round of applause should go out to the Avatiu league club whose players turned out in force to take part in the activities, including a great turnout of Tupapa youngsters at the BCI Stadium.