Three days late … but they won a medal and plenty of friends

(1966 Second South Pacific Games in Noumea from December 8 to 18.)

The team that won the greatest number of friends at the 1966 South Pacific Games was undoubtedly the tiny Cook Islands contingent, even though it did not arrive in Noumea until the games had been in progress for three days.

Arrangements had been made 18 months earlier for the team to fly out of Rarotonga on a special flight of Polynesian Airlines, but when that company’s aircraft were banned from the Rarotonga-Apia route for technical reasons, other plans had to be made.

One after another these plans fell through, and the team of three athletes, 19 netball players and two managers finally left Rarotonga in a New Zealand Air Force plane at 15 minutes’ notice.

It had been intended originally to bring several boxers and a tennis team too, but these people had to be left behind for lack of space.

In Pago Pago, the team was held up through lack of immediate connections. Then it got as far as Nadi by Air New Zealand, and finally reached Noumea by UTA.

Although the team had been up since 4am they were at the stadium within half an hour of reaching Noumea, and runner Tiki Matapo immediately entered one of the three heats of the 200 metres race.  He ran well enough to qualify, and came fourth in the final later in the afternoon.

Long distance runner Kau Pupa Wichman put up a fine performance in the men’s 10,000 metres race on the following night, but had to withdraw after 21 of the 25 laps when he pulled a thigh muscle.  He would have preferred to go in for the 5000 metres event, but that had already been run.

The netballers slaughtered all opposition and scored a total of 215 goals to the opposition’s 74.  A couple of days after receiving their gold medal for netball, the Cook Islanders were presented with a handsome silver trophy by the bus drivers’ federation of Noumea.

(Extract from Pacific Islands Monthly Magazine - January 1967).