1979 South Pacific Games

1979 South Pacific Games
Host city Suva
Country Fiji
Nations participating 19
Athletes participating 2,672 *
Events 18 sports
Opening ceremony August 28, 1979 (1979-08-28)
Closing ceremony September 8, 1979 (1979-09-08)
Main venue National Stadium (Suva)
<  1975 Guam 1983 Apia  >

The 1979 South Pacific Games, held at Suva in Fiji from 28 August to 8 September 1979, was the sixth edition of the South Pacific Games.[1]

Participating countries

Nineteen Pacific nations or territories attended:[2]

Sports

There were 18 sports contested at the 1979 South Pacific Games:


Note: A number in parentheses indicates how many medal events were contested in that sport (where known).

Final medal table

New Caledonia topped the table again:[1]

  The host country is highlighted in lavender blue
 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  New Caledonia 334326102
2  French Polynesia 31192979
3  Fiji 22162462
4  Papua New Guinea 16192156
5  Guam 117927
6  Western Samoa 1011627
7  American Samoa 41712
8  Tonga 1539
9  Cook Islands 1236
10  New Hebrides 0448
11  Norfolk Island 0134
12 Wallis and Futuna 0123
13  Solomon Islands 0055
14  Kiribati 0000
 Nauru0000
 Niue0000
Northern Marianas0000
Tokelau0000
 Tuvalu0000
Totals 129129142400

See also

Notes

^* For the 1979 Games, 19 countries and a projected 2,672 athletes took part.[1]

^† Eighteen sports as reported in Pacific Islands Monthly.[3] The newly introduced sports were: cricket,[4] hockey,[5] lawn bowls,[6] and squash.[7]

^a Netball: In Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM), it was reported that "Papua New Guinea took the bronze" in the 1979 netball competition, behind Fiji and Cook Islands.[8] However, a few pages later in PIM's results for the netball, Tonga is listed as finishing in third place.[9]

^b Swimming: There were either 24 or 23 events on the programme, depending on whether the men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay was contested and officially included in the medals. A publication from Guam's Political Status Education Coordinating Commission claims that Guam swimmer Hollis Kimbrough, "won a record seven medals in the '79 SPG alone",[10] and as such, the Pacific Islands Monthly results could be incomplete as only four medals are listed for Kimbrough there plus two men's relay medals for Guam – and the men's 4 × 200 is omitted.[11]

^c Table tennis: There were seven events on the programme (or perhaps only six or five, depending on whether the respective team competitions for men and women were played and medals officially awarded). The five events for table tennis in the list of results from the November 1979 issue of Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM) are the mixed doubles, men's and women's singles and doubles.[9] PIM reported earlier in the same issue that Fiji had won the women's team event (as well as the women's doubles),[12] but neither women's or men's team events appear in the PIM results.

^d Weightlifting: Ten men's weight divisions were contested, with one medal event only per division (for the maximum total lift of snatch + clean-and-jerk).[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "South Pacific Games 1979". Pacific Games Council. 2 February 2007. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  2. "South Pacific Games results". Pacific Islands Monthly (Pacific Publications) 50 (10). p. 137 (The Medal Winners). 1979. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  3. PIM 1979 (10), pp. 18–19.
  4. "The History of Cricket in Vanuatu". Vanuatu Cricket. 8 March 2007. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  5. Aruafu, Carlos (27 May 2015). "Oceania proud of our hockey". Solomon Star. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  6. "Opening ceremony torch carriers". Pacific Mini Games Cook Islands 2009. 9 October 2009. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  7. "...that in 1978 Squash was included for the FIRST time". Squash Fiji. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  8. & PIM 1979 (10), 15, § Netball.
  9. 1 2 3 & PIM 1979 (10), p. 19.
  10. I manfåyi, Who's who in Chamorro history, Volume 3 (Report). Political Status Education Coordinating Commission (Guam). 2003. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  11. PIM 1979 (10), p. 18.
  12. & PIM 1979 (10), 16, § Table Tennis.

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.