11:37 AM |
Results website frustrates Pacific Games fans
Updated
The website for the Pacific Games is still not showing any results four days after the games kicked off in New Caledonia.
Officials are hopeful the site will be up and running later in the week.
Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speker: Geraldine Coutts, Radio Australia reporter
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COUTTS: He had 150 tablets of steroids, illegal substances, thyroid pills and diuretics and the combination of course enhances performance and then masks the drugs in the system within a 24 hour period. But the reason that the police had persisted and pushed it to court is because they don't believe his story that it was for personal use. They claim that amount was for the potential for him to deal, and so they weren't letting it go and take it lightly. And apart from everything else, they're illegal substances and officials have been overt in their message to the athletes even before they came to the games, don't take drugs because you'll be caught, because they're going to have at least 350 random tests throughout the course of the games. So beware is the message to the athletes. But yeah, two o'clock this afternoon Cam, they'll be going to court. He still hasn't been named. I guess by practice of elimination I could have worked it out, but then if we had a website that worked that gave us all the details of the athletes we could do that. But the gods are against us, the planets haven't yet lined up for the organisers of the media centre just yet.
COONEY: Yeah we'll get to the website because it is causing some problems. I'm curious if there's been any response from the Tahitian team at this stage Gero?
COUTTS: No pretty quiet, no messages at all, no press conferences, actually you could say you ring the team managers and it's no comment because it's before the courts, the usual message, they don't want to prejudice themselves before they go to court this afternoon. It's fair enough I guess, but absolutely silent, they're not even saying who it is, and I asked at a press conference yesterday if it was automatic suspension from the games, would he be sent home? And the organisers, outlook a whitewash again, wouldn't commit to that either and said no, no, they'd be an investigation, a full investigation � but it's beyond doubt, the man was caught with 150 tablets in his luggage, so it's beyond doubt he was in possession. And yet they're still committing to even sending him home.
COONEY: Alright now you mentioned there if the website was working, because I understand this is causing some major frustrations over there, the fact that it is not working, it's not giving good results?
COUTTS: Well it's not giving any results. I went on this morning in the faint hope that I'd be able to give you a medal tally. There's not a medal on it, they just cannot get it up and running, and so there are no results. So between us, all of the journalists, when we go out to the various venues and get results and all the rest of it, we bring it back and share it amongst ourselves, which is how we're getting the results that we've got. And if it's an event that hasn't been visited by a journalist, there are no results. Look Frederico(?), the guy in the media centre, he's just lovely, outstanding working his fingers to the bone, but the fact is why wasn't this tested? It should have been months ago, why did it come down to the line that it's fallen over, well it hasn't fallen over, it hasn't got up to fall over, there is absolutely nothing in the website. It's beautiful, it will do all sorts of things once it gets up and running.
COONEY: Just not give you results?
COUTTS: No, no results, so they're saying not today, maybe tomorrow, so hopefully some time this week they'll actually be able to get it up and running, then it'll be a snap, because it's a beautiful website, it just doesn't give you results.
COONEY: Alright now look Tonga's table tennis campaign has taken a bit of a stall, they haven't even made it to New Caledonia yet, they're stuck in Brisbane. Any news on what's happened with these guys or why they've been delayed?
COUTTS: Look I rang the Tongan officials yesterday, they're not really sure and are a bit sketchy, but nine of them, that's the table tennis team, other sports in Tonga are actually here, so we're only talking about Tonga's table tennis team, stuck in Brisbane. Now we've got an assortment of reasons, and I emphasis this is just an assortment of reasons, we haven't had any confirmation. One is that a number of teams have had difficulty getting visas to transit through Australia, another is that one of the table tennis teammates missed the flight, so they decided to wait for him, so they're all hold up in Brisbane. But I suggest that's not the case, I think it'd be something more official as their hold-up in Brisbane for this amount of time. So the finger maybe is pointing more towards visa difficulties, but that cannot be confirmed, this is just hearsay at this stage and there are a lot more reasons. But because they didn't turn up New Caledonia got forfeits in the men's and women's teams events yesterday. Officials say look when and if they do turn up, they'll be allowed into the competition, as long as they arrive before the start, at the various events like the singles, the doubles and the mixed doubles, if they arrive after those events have started, forfeit will come again. But really at this stage no idea as to why they're still in Brisbane. But visas look like it might be the reason.
COONEY: Alright now good results for Papua New Guinea in the pool?
COUTTS: Oh Ryan Pini, look he is an absolute champion, I think two times in the Olympics, gold medal in the Commonwealth Games. He got gold last night in the 200 metres free, one of his pet events. He must have been foxing in the heats because he only got the fourth fastest time, but then in the final, floored it and came home with gold. Look I'd love to tell you about the events, because I left before they were on, but he was also to be in the 100 metre butterfly and the relay, but I don't know about that and as I've already mentioned the website, but I'm guessing that in the fly he would have done pretty well because he's had so much international competition he is being chased by all-comers now. So it's good for the up and comers to try and chase him and get there. But let's remember, Ryan Pini is now 29, so he's getting to that area of his career that he might be thinking about hanging up the togs. Speaking of hanging up the togs, in the body building thing, just going back to that for a moment, the officials warned very carefully to the men, no padding in your bathers, and for the women please cover your derrieres to at least two-thirds. This is New Caledonia, we're a Christian country, blah, blah, blah. No padding in your togs boys, and cover your derriere girls.
COONEY: Now protests yesterday I understand too, what's happening here?
COUTTS: Engla ZaZah in 500 metre mens, Fiji lodged a complaint that wound up going for three hours over Samoa, they reckon that Samoa finished out of its lane. Samoa countered by saying well if we finished out of our lanes, so did everybody else. Now that's not to suggest that they were playing dodgems and were banging into each other crossing the lane, they all started in the incorrect lanes, which was the argument that Samoa made. And so officials dismissed it saying well you're in the lane, and they said well why don't you dismiss them all, and they said because you were the only ones that had a complaint lodged against you. So that was not upheld, so then Samoa decided they'd lodge a complaint against the officials, which then made the complaints go on and on and on. So that was dismissed in the end as well. So three hours it took, it held up that particular 500 metres, and in the end, bad luck.
COONEY: Look very quickly what's on the agenda for the day, what's the big one?
COUTTS: Look I think that I'm going to go to the weightlifting because there's some big names coming up and at some stage I'd like to catch up with Dika Toua, who is the PNG women's champion. She's back for the first time now after having had a baby. So it'll be really interesting to see how she goes there. Za'a finishes again this afternoon, so the pool again will be on this afternoon, and we'll hopefully find out what's going there. But there's lots of medals on offer at the moment as the games heat up. So they'll be a variety of events and results.
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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