Category Archives: Oceania

26/04/2017

News

FIBA U17 Oceania Championships host - Guam

GUAM - From the July 10-15this year, 16 teams will come together to battle it out and become the champions of Oceania and earn one of two qualifying spots to the FIBA U18 Asia Championships in 2018.

This will all be taking place in Guam, the Micronesian island nation located in the Western Pacific at the southernmost tip of the Mariana Island chain. Guam is a dependent territory of the United States of America and has a rich military history due to its strategic military and economic position between Asia and North America.

Teams from all over Oceania will enjoy meeting many of Guams diverse population of 173,542 people from a range of backgrounds including Chamorro, South-East Asia, Micronesia and the USA.

The Guam Basketball Confederation (GBC) was formed in 1975 to provide basketball players on Guam an opportunity to compete at the highest level of basketball in local and international competitions.

GBC competes in the Micronesia sub-zone of FIBA Oceania and has seen sustained success over several years at all levels. Guam's youth teams have excelled in international competitions, placing third behind Australia and New Zealand in 2016 for U18 men and 2014 for U18 Women. At the senior men's level, Guam has won Gold at the 1979 and 2015 Pacific Games (formally known as the South Pacific Games), along with four silver medals in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

In striving to play at a consistently high level, GBC provides training opportunities for players, coaches, referees and technical officials. GBC hopes to improve every facet of Guam basketball, from its players and coaches, to its officials and staff at the scorers table. Ultimately, it is GBC's goal to ensure that the sport continues to grow on Guam, and that all those interested in the sport (whether as a referee, coach, or player) are given the opportunity to excel at it.

The GBC and the people of Guam are extremely excited to be hosting this years event.

"GBC is very much looking forward to hosting the U17 championship," commented GBC President, Tony Thompson.

"With potential future Olympians participating, the island is really in for a treat to some high caliber play as all teams step up their game to try to match each other."

"With the new competition system, each team will be striving to make it to that next level. Anything can happen on any given night."

FIBA

See the original post:

Get to know your FIBA U17 Oceania Championships 2017 hosts - FIBA

HAGTA (The Guam Daily Post) Guam will host the 19th Oceania Customs Organization Annual Conference from May 2 to 5.

Conference participants will discuss customs modernization and reforms related to the theme Data Analysis for Effective Border Management.

This years conference theme is relevant and timely as our region, including Guam, has seen a steady increase in transnational organized crime, particularly drug trafficking and financial crimes, the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency stated.

Human trafficking has also become a great concern to our region, according to the Guam agency.

The conference will involve about 50 delegates representing 23 customs administrations of Pacific island nations and territories, including Australia and New Zealand.

Seventeen global stakeholders and representatives of international and regional organizations and development partners such as the World Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development and the World Customs Organization are also expected to attend.

The Oceania Customs Organization conferences provide member administrations the platform to network, form partnerships, collaborate and share knowledge, information, training, intelligence and data to better protect their borders.

Here is the original post:

Guam customs to host Oceania conference - Marianas Variety

276

Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

The 684-passenger Regatta will visit more than a dozen Australian destinations.

Try Another

Audio CAPTCHA

Image CAPTCHA

Help

CancelSend

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

No. 20: The original R ships. Upscale Oceania Cruises operates four of the former R ships (Insignia, ex-R One, shown; Regatta, ex-R Two; Nautica, ex-R Five and Sirena, ex-R Four).(Photo: Peter Knego)

Oceania Cruises in late 2018 will offer a complete circumnavigation of Australia a rarity at the line.

The newly announced, 34-day voyage onthe 684-passenger Regatta will kick off Dec. 13, 2018 in Sydney and follow a counter-clockwise route around the world's sixth largest country.

Port stops in Australia will include Brisbane, Hamilton Island, Cairns, Broome, Exmouth, Perth, Esperance, Adelaide, Portland, Melbourne and Eden.

Regatta also will visit Australia's Kangaroo Island and Tasmania. In addition, the trip will include stops in Papua New Guinea and the Indonesia islands of Bali and Komodo. The sailingends Jan. 16, 2019 in Sydney.

Oceania only has offered two other circumnavigations of Australia in its 15-year history. Its first circling of the country took place this past winter on the 684-passenger Sirena. A second trip around Australia will take place this coming winter on Regatta.

First look: Inside Oceania Cruises' new ship, Sirena

Fares for the sailing start at $8,599 per person, based on double occupancy.

Regatta is one of Oceania's four Regatta Class ships. For a deck-by-deck tour of a Regatta Class ship, scroll through the carousel at the top of this story.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2pVPCvj

0) { %>

0) { %>

Link:

Oceania Cruises ship to circle Australia - USA TODAY

Guam will host the 19th Oceania Customs Organization Annual Conference from May 2 to 5.

Conference participants will discuss customs modernization and reforms related to the theme "Data Analysis for Effective Border Management."

"This year's conference theme is relevant and timely as our region, including Guam, has seen a steady increase in transnational organized crime, particularly drug trafficking and financial crimes," the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency stated.

Human trafficking has also become a great concern to our region, according to the Guam agency.

The conference will involve about 50 delegates representing 23 customs administrations of Pacific island nations and territories, including Australia and New Zealand.

Seventeen global stakeholders and representatives of international and regional organizations and development partners such as the World Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development and the World Customs Organization are also expected to attend.

The Oceania Customs Organization conferences provide member administrations the platform to network, form partnerships, collaborate and share knowledge, information, training, intelligence and data to better protect their borders.

Read the original here:

Guam customs to host Oceania conference - The Guam Daily Post (press release) (registration)

A good sprinkling of southern athletes has been selected for the Oceania area and combined events championships in Fiji at the end of June.

A large team of 55 athletes from across New Zealand has been picked for the championships.

With Athletics New Zealand deciding not to send a team to the World Youth Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, later this year, the team to Fiji has been enlarged.

The championships take place every second year and have under-18, under-20 and senior grades.

The team contains five New Zealand senior champions. Ben Langton Burnell (javelin), Max Attwell (decathlon), Anna Thomson (triple jump), Maddison-Lee Wesche (shot put) and Ariana Blackwood (heptathlon) have all been selected in their specialist events.

The southern representatives are 1500m runner Nathan Hill, combined events athlete Felix McDonald and another combined events athlete, Cameron Miller.

Also selected are: parafed sprinter Jacob Phillips, parafed long jumper/sprinter Anna Grimaldi, parafed shot-putter Jessica Hamill and parafed javelin thrower Holly Robinson.

Javelin thrower Anton Schroder, who hails from Southland but is educated in Dunedin, has made the team along with Liam Turner, who also comes from Southland but attends school in Dunedin.

The championships will take place in Suva. Australia has also named a big team for the championships and along with New Zealand should dominate the medals table ahead of 20 other national federations.

Read the original:

Several southerners in team for Oceania event - Otago Daily Times

news

New Food considers to what extent Oceania might present a potential solution to the impending global crisis

Having explored how demographic and economic changes, climate and environmental shiftsare affecting food security in Asia, the worlds most populous continent, New Food considers to what extent Oceania might present a potential solution to the impending global crisis.

With many Asian nations facing difficulties trying to meet the growing and changing food demand (explored further here), a solution might exist in the form of Oceania, or for the purpose of this article, Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand, for example, has a booming agriculture sector. Sheep farming is the major rural activity, with beef cattle farming in the hills and high country, and a strong dairy industry on the rise in the Canterbury, Otago and Southland areas. Large multinational companies such as Fonterra are making significant expansion moves into the Chinese market for example and are proud of their New Zealand roots and identity. Furthermore, New Zealand is also the worlds eighth largest milk producer, with approximately 2.2% of world production coming from its beautiful countryside.

Agriculture is of phenomenal importance to Australia and the nation has a rich history of exporting agricultural goods. The sectorearns roughly $155 billion-a-year for a 12% share of national GDP. Australian farmers and grazers own 135,997 farms, covering 61% of Australias landmass. With Asias growing middle class and subsequent increasing demand for livestock and meat-based goods, Australias economic and agricultural set-up feels like a good fit to supply the changing nature of demand, certainly in China and South East Asia.The Asian region will be home to approximately 3.2 billion affluent, middle-class people by the year 2030, mostly in near neighbours China, India and Indonesia, though dependent on precisely how the terms middle-class and affluent are defined.

East Asias dominance as the target of Australias exports will continue to grow over the next fifteen years it is thought. China is thought to be the primary export market, thoughAustralias potential to serve as a food bowl for Asia though is dependent on how high Asias economic growth rates and how this growth will influence structural changes and import demand in Asia.

Oceania on the face of things however, looks suitable to serve as potential alleviating force of the Asian food security challenge the world now faces.

That said, as some critics suggest, the food bowl rhetoric is little more than just a political catchphrase. In reality, some argue, China have been investing more in Africa.

Africas cheaper land, lower wages and relative regulatory freedom with regard to environmental regulations has emergedas the low-cost and large-scale target of Chinese agricultural investment.

There are measures Oceania can either take or outcomes that would aid the region in any aim at becoming a food bowl:

Food security in Asia will play a significant role in global matters over the next few decades and for a key insight, check out the rest of the Feeding Asia series below. New Food hopes you have enjoyed the series andto become a member of the publication for free, click here.

Visit link:

Feeding Asia: Is Oceania a viable food bowl? - New Food

LANCE SMITH

Last updated11:51, April 23 2017

ATHLETICS SOUTHLAND

National championship triple jump gold medallists Atipa Mabonga and Andrew Allan have been selected to represent New Zealand at the Oceania Athletics Championships.

The announcement of the 55-strong New Zealand team to the Oceania Athletics Championships in Suva, has added five new names to the long list of Southlanders athletes to have represented New Zealand.

International debutantes Andrea McDowell, Emma Ryan, Andrew Allan, Anton Schroder and Hannah Miller join Liam Turner in his second Oceania team and Atipa Mabonga who will be contesting her third Oceania championship at Suva.

For all except Miller, selection came from strong showings at New Zealand champs with all six picking up medals in their events, including gold for Mabonga, Schroder and Allan.

McDowell consolidated her selection with the bronze medal at the national combined events championship.

READ MORE: Beaumont gets former world champion's advice

Miller's situation is slightly different.

The US based runner gained the selector's nod by achieving a performance standard, which she did in the 1500m and 5000m.

The Texas-based SMU student and Gore club member has also been named in the New Zealand team to the World University Games in Taipei a month after the Oceania champs.

For Miller, Suva will provide invaluable international experience prior to stepping up to the even higher level of a world championship.

All Southlanders heading to Suva are among the best in New Zealand, but representing New Zealand in another country against athletes you have never heard of is a whole new ball game.

The ability to step up, along withpast performances, are among selectors' considerations when choosing the team.

The Oceania championships, with teams from 20 countries including Australia. Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti and Rarotonga, are usually the first overseas international experience for young athletes and are a stepping-stone to even higher levels for seniors.

In Suva, McDowell will contest the W20 heptathlon, Allan the M18 triple and long jumps, Mabongathe W20 triple and long, Ryan the W20 hammer and shot, Schroder the M20 javelin and Turner the M20 800m and Miller the senior 1500m and 5000m.

The seven selected indicates the depth of athletic talent in the region, with Southland clubs providing well over 10 per cent of the New Zealand team yet having nowhere near 10 per cent of the country's up and coming teenage athletes.

Competition is at the ANZ Stadium, Suva from June 28 to July 1st, while the World University competition for Hannah Miller is from August 19 to 30.

-Stuff

Continued here:

Promising Southland athletes selected for Oceania Athletics Championships - The Southland Times

Last updated15:28, April 24 2017

Robert Kitchin

Matthew Growcott won the boys' under-11 title at the Oceania squash championships.

Canterbury's Matthew Growcott has won gold in the under-11 boys at the Oceania Squash Championships.

The tournament was held at the Henderson Squash Club in Aucklandand attracted over 200 entries across the age groups, with players fromAustralia,China, French Polynesia,Hong Kong,New CaledoniaandSingapore.

Growcott who plays out of the Burnside Squash club, was seeded fifth, which meant he had to first play a qualifying match against Riley McCracken which he won 3-0 to progress into the main championship draw.

His first match in the main draw was against the top seed Oliver Dunbar fromWellington, who he had lost to in last year's New Zealand junior nationals 3-1, but he turned the tables this time beatingDunbar11-8, 11-3, 11-9.

His next match was against fourth seedAustralian Aryan Madan, where he lost a tight first game 11-9, before his fitness showed over the Australian, winning the next 3 games 11-6, 11-3, 11-2.

In the final, it was an allNew Zealandaffair with Growcott playing sixth seed Reece Holmes from the Hawera club.

Growcott got up 8-2 in the first game due to some strongshotsand a few errors by Holmes.

Holmes started to cut the errors and Growcott started to go for winning shots that didn't pay-off, but held on to win 11-9.

In the second game Growcott was too consistent and won 11-4. Both players cut their errors out in the third game and it went point for point before Growcott won 11-8, taking the title.

OtherCanterburyplayers to take medals and better their seeding were Quinn Udy from the Marlborough Club and Ruby Turnbull from the Christchurch Football club.

Udy, who was seeded third in the under 19's, beat the second seed Australian Caleb Johnson 3-2 in the semis, but lost to fellow New Zealander Finn Trimble in the final 3-0 to claim a silver medal.

Turnbull, playing in the under 17s, was seeded fourth. She lost in the semi finals to overall Champion Rhiarne Taiapa 3-0, then beat Annaleise Faint 3-1 to claim the bronze medal.

-Stuff

Original post:

Young Canterbury squash player takes out title at Oceania Championships - The Press

LANCE SMITH

Last updated11:51, April 23 2017

ATHLETICS SOUTHLAND

National championship triple jump gold medallists Atipa Mabonga and Andrew Allan have been selected to represent New Zealand at the Oceania Athletics Championships.

The announcement of the 55-strong New Zealand team to the Oceania Athletics Championships in Suva, has added five new names to the long list of Southlanders athletes to have represented New Zealand.

International debutantes Andrea McDowell, Emma Ryan, Andrew Allan, Anton Schroder and Hannah Miller join Liam Turner in his second Oceania team and Atipa Mabonga who will be contesting her third Oceania championship at Suva.

For all except Miller, selection came from strong showings at New Zealand champs with all six picking up medals in their events, including gold for Mabonga, Schroder and Allan.

McDowell consolidated her selection with the bronze medal at the national combined events championship.

READ MORE: Beaumont gets former world champion's advice

Miller's situation is slightly different.

The US based runner gained the selector's nod by achieving a performance standard, which she did in the 1500m and 5000m.

The Texas-based SMU student and Gore club member has also been named in the New Zealand team to the World University Games in Taipei a month after the Oceania champs.

For Miller, Suva will provide invaluable international experience prior to stepping up to the even higher level of a world championship.

All Southlanders heading to Suva are among the best in New Zealand, but representing New Zealand in another country against athletes you have never heard of is a whole new ball game.

The ability to step up, along withpast performances, are among selectors' considerations when choosing the team.

The Oceania championships, with teams from 20 countries including Australia. Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti and Rarotonga, are usually the first overseas international experience for young athletes and are a stepping-stone to even higher levels for seniors.

In Suva, McDowell will contest the W20 heptathlon, Allan the M18 triple and long jumps, Mabongathe W20 triple and long, Ryan the W20 hammer and shot, Schroder the M20 javelin and Turner the M20 800m and Miller the senior 1500m and 5000m.

The seven selected indicates the depth of athletic talent in the region, with Southland clubs providing well over 10 per cent of the New Zealand team yet having nowhere near 10 per cent of the country's up and coming teenage athletes.

Competition is at the ANZ Stadium, Suva from June 28 to July 1st, while the World University competition for Hannah Miller is from August 19 to 30.

-Stuff

More:

Promising Southland athletes selected for Oceania Athletics Championships - Stuff.co.nz

Nov 11, 2016; Columbus, OH, USA; Mexico midfielder Hector Herrera (16) dribbles the ball while USA defender DeAndre Yedlin (2) defends during the second half of the match at MAPFRE Stadium. Mexico beats the USA 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Chicago Fire: 3 Key Takeaways from Toronto FC by Jaymes Grider

New England Revolution vs. DC United: Preview and How to Watch by Daniel Garza

The 11-nation Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) competes as the smallest of six continental soccer confederations. But it has the eligibility to dilute North American efforts. It could extend a bid of its own for the expanded 48-team, 80-match tournament.

So they carry a big stick.Their swinging that stick helps the CONCACAF World Cup cause a lot.

With the OFCs April 18 endorsement, they nearly cleared the path for the 2026 World Cup coming to North America.

Oceania backing the bid for the Cup leaves just two others, CAF (Africa) and CONMEBOL (South America), apparently in the running for bids, reports Rob Usry for SB Nations Stars and Strips FCon April 18:

CONCACAF is expected to submit a request to FIFA to allow them a one-year exclusive period of negotiations where they would have until March 2018 without any competitors to show their bid is up to World Cup standards. With so few contenders in line, theres a chance they could win the bid without any opposition at all if FIFA allows them the one-year period.

OFC President David Chung specifically said his organization backs FIFA making a decision on May 11 for the joint bids exclusive period of negotiation:

These three nations have the appropriate infrastructure in place to host the enlarged 48 team, 80 match event. In addition, CONCACAF has not hosted the worlds premier football tournament since 1994, so it makes sense on a rotational basis that the World Cup returns to the Confederation.

The Daily Mail reported earlier this year on FIFAs financial research of the new World Cup format. It should generate about $7 billion.

U.S. Soccer President Suni Gulati said April 10 in the New York Times that the financial impact supports the CONCACAF bid as well.Many federations depend heavily on funds by World Cup payouts:

A World Cup in North America, with 60 games in the United States, would be, by far, the most successful World Cup in the history of FIFA, in terms of economics.

So Oceanias support at this date isnt any mouse that roared. Their statement rings loud and clear.

See more here:

Oceania Football Confederation on World Cup Bid: No Mouse That Roared - MLS Multiplex