Monthly Archives: July 2024

The Asia and Oceania SAMBO Championships will be held in Macau on June 29-30. Competitions will be heldin Sport and Combat SAMBO among men and women. On the eve of the start of the tournament the draw of the participants was held.

Draw of the 1st Day of the Asia and Oceania SAMBO Championships 2024

Sport SAMBO (men): 58 kg, 64 kg, 71 kg, 79 kg, 88 kg, 98 kg, +98 kg

Sport SAMBO (women): 50 kg, 54 kg, 59 kg, 65 kg, 72 kg, 80 kg, +80 kg

[VIDEO] Announcement of the Asia and Oceania SAMBO Championships 2024

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Draw of the 1st Day of the Asia and Oceania Sambo Championships 2024 | International SAMBO Federation (FIAS) - International Sambo Federation

According to a United Nations Development Programme report, approximately 75% of the population of Pacific island nations are affected by natural disasters. The report also states that the impact of climate change in the region is largely overlooked and poses a serious threat, particularly to young people and future generations who face the potential loss of their homelands, cultural identity, and work opportunities resulting from rising sea levels. The report estimates that sea levels will rise between about 10 inches to 23 inches by 2050.

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has been outspoken on the need for the care of creation as well as the integral human development of all people, particularly the poor and vulnerable. In addition to his encyclical Laudato Si (2015) and apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum (2023), the Holy Father has addressed the issue of climate change and its rising human cost to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in 2015 as well at COP, the annual U.N. climate change conference.

At Oceania Speaks, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations Archbishop Paul Gallagher echoed Pope Francis concern for people facing hunger, exploitation, and poverty due to climate change and emphasized the urgent need for a unified global response to the crisis.

In the context of Oceania, the impending threat posed by rising sea levels to many small Pacific islands states is deeply alarming, reaching beyond mere geographical boundaries, Gallagher said at the gathering. Entire villages [are] on the brink of destruction, forcing local communities particularly families into perpetual displacement that erode their distinct identities and cultural heritage. We should also take into consideration the risk of degrading their natural heritage.

Sister Philomena Waira of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea also shared her testimony at Oceania Speaks and highlighted the ecological and social impacts of foreign mining and logging in Papua New Guinea.

In the past, people had no problem with food and water. [People] were able to grow crops without fertilizers, Waira said. As the years went by the governments are allowing foreign investors into our countries. After the mining is done, it has affected climate change, peoples fishing, and animals have also run away.

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Conference in Rome highlights Pacific islands' climate peril - Catholic News Agency

As he is affectionally know in the Northern Mariania Islands, Coach Robbie Badminton Ocenanas Coaching & Development Manager, is on his fourth visit to Northern Marianas, working with 20 local players plus two from neighbouring Island Guam, facilitating the National Junior training camp. Assisting with this camp is current Oceania Mens Singles Champion and participant in the upcoming Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open 2024 and Dove Saipan International 2024 tournaments, Edward Lau.

The players train twice a day from 9am-12pm and then again from 2pm-4pm. The sessions cover all aspects of badminton including physical, tactical and technical. Coach, Robbie Thackham believes the players have been working hard since his last visit saying Theres been a big improvement in the players since the last training camp which was held in October 2023.

Two of the participants, LIna Tsukagoshi (NMI) and Allan Zeng (GUM) are part of the Tier 2 Badminton Oceania development programme that will be training in Thailand at the end of 2024.

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PLAYER DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES TO THRIVE IN THE NORTH PACIFIC - Badminton Oceania

The good news? It seems that King Charles planned tour to Oceania will continue this fallbut, in some less great news (especially for those countries who were looking forward to seeing the King visit them), it seems the trip has been scaled back significantly in light of Charles cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

The King has been encouraged by his wife, the Queen, to slow down his work as he continues to receive cancer treatment; it remains unknown whether he's been listening to her advice.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Following a routine prostate procedure in late January, cancer was detected, and the King announced his diagnosis publicly on February 5, the same day he began receiving treatment. He returned to public duty on April 30, after about three months away.

According to The Daily Mail, the King and Queen Camilla were expected to visit Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji in October, but both the New Zealand and the Fiji legs of the Oceania tour will likely be dropped imminently as the Kings medical team orders Charles to pace himself as he continues his cancer recovery.

In addition to visiting Australia, the couple is also reportedly still expected to visit Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that same month.

Officials first decided to drop Fiji and then New Zealand, because a trip like that is quite strenuous, a source speaking to The Daily Mail said. The tour will probably last around 10 days, covering Australia and Samoa.

Charles and Camilla are still planning to visit Oceania in the fall, but it will be a heavily scaled back visit and subject to scale back even more, depending on Charles' ongoing treatment.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The tour is reportedly being referred to as the autumn tour by courtiers, and The Daily Mail writes that, while planning is still very much underway for it, it continues to be subject to medical advice and any necessary modifications.

Back in March, Australias Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that Charles and Camilla would be visiting come October, depending on the Kings health and cancer treatment, and when Charles returned to public duty in late April, sources said he was hopeful that the visit would go ahead. On Friday, reports emerged that the scaled-back plans would be a bitter disappointment on both sides, as Charles is keen to make up for lost time. New Zealands opposition MP Adrian Rurawhe said of the Kings potentially canceled plans to visit the country that I was in Samoa recently, and the organization for the visit is quite advanced, Rarawhe said. There is a lot of excitement in the country and a huge operation in preparation. Nothing has been announced so far over here, but if the royal visit is canceled, New Zealanders will be typically reasonable about it.

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The King and Queen are in the middle of a busy month, including hosting a Japanese state visit this week.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The King was honored earlier this month at Trooping the Colour, the monarch's annual birthday parade, on June 15.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Charles is a known (and lifelong) workaholic, and his busy summer schedule has raised eyebrows and concerns about how his doctors feel about it. The Court Circular suggests that the King has taken only three days off over the past two weeks, cramming in audiences, receptions, and key events such as Royal Ascotwhere he missed only one day, The Daily Mail reports. Palace sources say the Kings diary is adapted on medical advice, but the full schedule echoes the words of friends who told The Sunday Times in May that Charles was a bloody caged lion.

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Major Changes Are Apparently Afoot to King Charles and Queen Camilla's Planned Oceania Tour This Fall Amid the ... - Marie Claire

By Coen Lammers

Football fans are currently enjoying a smorgasbord of action from Euro 2024 and the Copa America, but in the outer reaches of the football map, in the tiny island nation of Vanuatu, Oceania is serving up its own wonderful and unique football flavours.

On Sunday, Vanuatu and New Zealand will square off for the Oceania Football Confederation Nations Cup, the pinnacle event in this part of the world and the stadium will heave with excitement.

The stadiums in Germany have been bouncing with fans from all over Europe, but few of those crowds will match the near-fanatical masses packing into the Freshwater Stadium in Port Vila the past two weeks.

OFC Nations Cup matches, especially those involving the host team, have been the hottest tickets in town, and the 7,000 tickets sell out within a couple of hours. That figure represents the official capacity, but with thousands of youngsters under 12 getting free entry, there is barely a spare blade of grass left.

The locals know that need to get there early if you want one of the 1,500 seats in the covered stands, and are usually filled two or three hours before kick-off, bringing their own lunches and leaving behind a mountain of peanut shells.

Normal rules, of course, do not apply to local VIPs who want to bask in the glory of Vanuatus pinnacle event.

With every seat already filled, the unannounced late arrival of Ministers with their entourage has been causing some major juggling acts and diplomacy for the local organisers, trying to keep the officials and the paying punters happy.

An estimated 10,000 packed VFF Freshwater Stadium for Vanuatus dramatic semi-final win over Fiji, which is a quarter of the population of Port Vila, with thousands more watching from rooftops, car trunks, woodpiles and any other form of elevation.

To say Vanuatu is football-mad would be an understatement, and the nation has been proud and grateful to host their first-ever OFC Nations Cup to commemorate the 90-year anniversary of the VFF.

The insolvency of Air Vanuatu threw a late spanner in the works and forced part of the tournament to be moved to Fiji, but would not stop the enthusiastic local organising committee from pulling out all stops to make their guests feel welcome.

Vanuatu and its football federation have significant economic and logistical challenges, that would make football administrators in other countries curl up in the foetal position, but the tournament has so far been gone off without any major glitches.

Some teams raised concerns about the quality of the training pitches, which highlights one of the major challenges Vanuatu football faces for their own development.

Aside from the FIFA-funded Freshwater Stadium, other venues are run by the local government and the pitches are not always their top priority, while the broadleaved island grass makes it difficult to create a smooth surface.

The ground staff at Freshwater tried to grow a pitch with thinner grass like players are used to in New Zealand, only to see the local grass take over in a matter of weeks.

The best training pitch on the main island of Efate turned out to be at the Montmarte School, far in the hills above Port Vila, surrounded by dense tropical bush which can only be reached after some serious off-roading.

The All Whites used Montmarte as their training base, where the support staff got a bit of a fright in their first session, retrieving wayward balls from the bushes and being confronted by huge spiders, allegedly the size of small dogs.

As a result, some of the balls were left behind in the bush for the local school kids to retrieve, and the shooting drills were moved to the other goal.

As coach Darren Bazeley had predicted, the OFC Nations Cup was an eye-opener for some of the New Zealand professionals, cramped into mini-buses, playing on unfamiliar surfaces, against unfamiliar teams and having to get changed in a wooden shed outside the main stadium for the semi-final, because the two main dressing rooms were used for the second semi-final.

This is back to basics. Some of these guys havent seen a shed like this since they played in the under-14s, joked one of the Kiwi support staff.

To their credit, the young All Whites squad and their coaches took their new surroundings in their stride without complaints and focused on getting the job done.

Many of the squad had experienced football in the islands during previous U-17 and U-20 campaigns and went out of their way to engage with the locals, shake hands and pose for selfies wherever they travelled.

Instead of being intimidated, the All Whites seemed to feed off the energy of the raucous crowd, who were only a couple of metres from the playing surface, embracing Vanuatu and its football passion.

The script for the tournament could not have been better, with the local heroes making their first-ever final against the overwhelming favourites from New Zealand.

Whatever the result on Sunday, the final will be the biggest day in the annals of Vanuatu football and possibly the most famous day in the history of the friendly island nation.

READ MORE: Vanuatu make history to reach Sundays OFC Mens Nations Cup final>>>>

Games to be played on Sunday June 30, 2024

Play-off for third place

Tahiti v Fiji VFF Freshwater Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu, 12pm (NZT)

Final

New Zealand v Vanuatu VFF Freshwater Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu, 4pm (NZT)

This story was first published on June 30, 2024

Coen Lammers is a long-time football enthusiast and writer. Based in Canterbury, hes followed and reported on football around the world.

Original post:

Oceania's pinnacle event becomes a showcase for true football passion - Friends of Football

Ahead of the OFC Nations Cup final, both New Zealand and Vanuatu have players in serious doubt to make the big fixture.

Both New Zealands Darren Bazeley and Vanuatus Juliano Schmeling have key figures who may not make the final, they both confirmed at the pre-match press conference ahead of Sundays final.

For NZ it is Tim Payne, who hobbled off the pitch in the semi final against Tahiti.

Tims in recovery process today. Hes getting medical attention today. So well find out later how serious that injury is.The medical department dont make quick decisions until theyve really diagnosed it properly. Ill probably know by the time I get back to the hotel how hes feeling, Bazeley said on Football in Oceanias question about the teams injury situation.

But apart from that, were in pretty good shape. Everyones recovered. And weve got a bit of a quiet day today where theyre doing some recovery. But we should be at full strength.

For his counterpart, Schmeling, he had to see Bong Kalo coming off the field in the first half in their semi final. And the playmaker is unlikely to make the big game.

At the moment, were still in that phase of investigating, try to see the doctor and see whats the real situation of Bong. He got a very small chance to be part of the final, to be honest, at this stage. But well see the results. And start getting more clear this afternoon in his situation. Apart from him, I think we are pretty much at full strength, taking Bong out of the list, Schmeling said.

Both coaches now look forward to an exciting final, with both praising the other. Bazeley says he saw a performance full of heart in Vanuatus match against Fiji.

I thought they played some really good football and was brave in possession. You know, when you look at the two teams,Vanuatu was a team, you know, trying to play out from the back and trying to play through the thirds and to try and get it to those tricky wingers they have that I thought performed very well on the day.

I think us and Vanuatu are the teams that have progressed quite nicely through the tournament. In regards to each game, probably stepping up and getting slightly better each performance.

Schmeling knows his Vanuatu side will need to pull off a small miracle to get the win, but he has found some weaknesses in the NZ team, but he is for obvious reason not sharing them.

We have analyzed them but we are not able to say something to you. Especially because theyre next to me as well, he said, inciting a round of laughs from the attending media.

So, we know the challenge we have and yeah, they have special players, but the structure they have is a very disciplined team, definitely have some strength. And we try to do our best. Therefore, like I said, for Sunday, we need to do a perfect game with no individual mistakes. If we can do that, we know that our group will fight to keep going, fighting like they did yesterday. And why not dream for the title?

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A passion for everything football and especially in Oceania. Owner of Football in Oceania.

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Coaches update on injuries ahead of thrilling final - Football in Oceania