Samoa Sports

All sporting activities in the country were halted when Samoa's Covid-19 State of Emergency Orders came into effect on 21 March.

However non-contact sports were allowed to restart on Saturday after cabinet agreed to ease some restrictions on the population.

The Minister for Sport, Loau Keneti Sio, said it was a positive step.

The Pacific Games Council confirmed this week it would formally terminate the host agreement with Tonga, after the deadline passed for the government to recommit its support.

Samoa's Prime Minister, Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, said at the end of May his country was keen and always stood ready to host international sporting events.

The Sports Minister, Loau Keneti Sio, said that desire remained.

"Absolutely. We have mentioned it before that we had a cabinet meeting and our Prime Minister was raising the issue," he said.

“The athletes are our most important ingredient, to help lift our international sports profile, we need more than just to revive sports to make up for our country’s poor performance at major international events,” he said.

“We need to invest in our young athletes. To inspire them to be more determined and motivated to aspire for higher honors,” he added.

Loau says in order to do that, Samoa must confront its weaknesses while moving ahead.

The revived event began yesterday in Upolu, with competing athletes walking with police to the government buildings in Apia and raising the flag before the official opening ceremony.

Athletics, weightlifting and archery all got underway on day one and the CEO of the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee, Fa'amausili Taiva Ah Young, said hockey, cricket and volleyball were among the remaining 11 sports starting today.

The committee's head Fa'amausili Taiva Ah Young told the Samoa Observer the games will take place on the 5th of December.

Fa'amausili said SASNOC held a meeting with all the heads of sports and decided that it was time to revive the event again because research shows that the country needs to have competitions annually to prepare athletes for future international tournaments.

He said the event will generate interest and athletes enthusiasm to play in Olympic sports.