Transcript
CLINT FLOOD: The events went off without hitch. Behind the scenes all the operations, the transport, the catering, the villages were all done really well and the comments were that people were astounded what a level that we delivered this in Vanuatu. We had some comments that people thought these were the main (Pacific) Games and we delivered them to that higher standard. We were blessed with pretty good weather for December - we had a couple of rainy days but we got in all the sports. Great competition - the athletes are the stars of these things of course and they put on some fantastic performances in all 14 sports. We sold out almost every single day. I don't know the total number of spectators but it was probably 50,000 at least, we would think, that bought tickets for the event so overall really well.
VINNIE WYLIE: I suppose when you have a home event like that you want the home team to do well. Vanuatu I think finished fourth on the medals tally and had particular success in the likes of tennis, table tennis and obviously the football so good to see the home team coming up and I guess that helps energise the locals and the people involved.
CF: It's always the sign of a good Games I think - our end and my end is focused on delivering the operations but it's always helped by having a great performance (from the host country) and Team Vanuatu, with the help of the government of course and the government of China, who took a lot of athletes away for six months to train, the proof is in the results. I think it's 20 (22) gold medals in total, fourth (on the medal tally is Vanuatu's) best performance ever and not just in some sports - basically all sports except for weightlifting where they're not very strong but I think in all other sports they were winners. The men's and women's football: this is a football-mad nation and there was lots of celebrations for both the men's and women's teams. Gold medal performance by the girls in volleyball and they're ranked in the top (echelon) in the world so it was fantastic both on and certainly off the field of play as well.
VW: What do you think the legacy will be for Vanuatu because that's always a really important part of these Games is the legacy. You've got the venues but you want to try and leave people with a lasting impression of the country and what you guys can put on?
CF: Here the legacies are, as you said, the venues but I think now a bit of a "can-do" attitude too. There were so many naysayers saying, "oh Vanuatu they can't do it or they will do it at some level that at best it won't be an embarrassment for the country", but I think the team that delivered the Games - the collective team of everybody - I think it was delivered to such a standard that it says Vanuatu can deliver not only (Pacific) Games but other events and other programmes at a pretty high level. I'd like to personally see some sports tourism develop out of this so that we've got some great venues now, we've got people who can deliver events - why not hold Masters Games here, why not look at those type of things to bring more tourists in that spend some dollars and enjoy the great facilities that we've got. We've got a volunteer base - we had 1600 volunteers that came out every single day, rain or shine, and that's a base you can build on. I think justĀ overall this whole sense of the pride of the nation in delivering something to this magnitude of this quality is the greatest legacy and hopefully the country will follow up and bring more events and more opportunities here.
VW: What would you say the biggest challenge was? I guess Tahiti not there - ultimately they had a few boxers under the Pacific Games Council flag - and that's something as an Organising Committee and as a host country I guess is completely out of your control but curve balls come in at the last minute and you have to roll with them?
CF: Yeah I was disappointed and I think there's some larger and longer challenges ahead for Tahiti of course and hopefully they can put the sport programme back in place and get politics out of sport there. We would have liked to have a few more teams in football - it would have been great to have PNG here and the other teams. Some of the other challenges or things I guess we could have looked at a little more differently is around the promotion of how important these Games are regionally and where the next stepping stones are. One of the things we were successful on - and I'd like to see that we could do this again in future Games - is we had the Commonwealth Games Qualifier for volleyball and that attracted more teams in volleyball that we had. I think if the Pacific Games (Council) can work with the sport federations to say can these Pacific Mini Games and the Pacific Games themselves be qualifiers for other events then it will lead to, I think, better participation from all the countries across more sports.