7 Aug 2012

Sport: London Games a learning curve for Team Vanuatu

10:50 am on 7 August 2012

Vanuatu's time at the London Olympics is over with their final athlete, Arnold Sorina, unable to make it out of the heats in the men's 800m.

Five athletes represented Vanuatu at the Games, in table tennis, judo and athletics.

The country's Chef de Mission, Joe Carlo, says, they've learnt a lot about what is needed to succeed at the top level.

"The athletes mostly train on their own and we've made this known to those in the respective federations of the athletes, the support of people in training behind them - therapists, dietitian and nutrition should be used in the build up to participate in these events. It's not the same as participating in the national games or Pacific Games, they should be well prepared and well trained to be able to compete at the level of the other member countries."

He says while there were no medals or headline results, he felt, individually, great progress was made.

Arnold Saurian did his personal best, so did the judo kid who's only been involved in judo for three years or so but he's improving. And that's the point - while most countries will be looking at competing for medals, if personal bests one can improve on we go from there and we look forward to supporting them when we get back to be able to push them ahead in the sport they wish to follow.