2015 Pacific Games

XV Pacific Games

Official logo of the Games
Host city	Port Moresby
Country	Papua New Guinea
Nations	24
Athletes	3,796[ citation needed ]
Events	299 in 28 sports
Opening	4 July 2015
Closing	18 July 2015
Opened by	Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Closed by	PGC President Vidhya Lakhan
Athlete's Oath	Deslyn Siniu
Judge's Oath	Susan Babao
Torch lighter	Dika Toua
Main venue	Sir John Guise Stadium
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The 2015 Pacific Games (Tok Pisin : 2015 Pasifik Gems), officially the XV Pacific Games and also known as Port Moresby 2015 or POM 2015, was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from 4 to 18 July 2015. ^[1] It was the fifteenth staging of the Pacific Games as well as the third to be hosted in Port Moresby.

More than 3,700 athletes from the 22 Pacific Games Associations plus first time entrants Australia and New Zealand, took part. ^{[2] [3]} With almost 300 sets of medals, the games featured 28 sports, 19 of which are on the 2016 Summer Olympics program. Only men's football was a straight qualifying event for Rio 2016. These sporting events took place in 14 venues in the host city.

The host nation, Papua New Guinea, topped the medal table for only the second time, winning the most golds (88) and most medals overall (217). ^[4] New Caledonia finished second making it only the third time the French territory had failed to place first. Tahiti finished third. Tuvalu won its first ever gold medal at the games, and the debuting teams from Australia and New Zealand won their first Pacific Games medals including gold. ^{[5] [6] [7]}

Host selection

Five Pacific Island countries expressed interests in hosting the fifteenth edition of the games as soon as the bidding process began. They were American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. By March 2009, only three were serious bidders – Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Tonga. ^[8] On 20 September 2009, the Solomon Islands National Olympic Committee President – Fred Maetoloa, in a press statement announced the withdrawal of the Solomons bid following the withdrawal of the Solomon Island government's commitment and support. ^[9]

On 27 September 2009, the Pacific Games Council, at its meeting coinciding with the 2009 Pacific Mini Games, elected Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea as the host of the 2015 Games. The final vote was 25–22 in favor of Port Moresby over Tonga to host. ^[10]

2015 Pacific Games bidding results
City	PGA	Final Votes
Port Moresby	Papua New Guinea	25
Nukuʻalofa	Tonga	22

Development and preparation

Preparations for the Games, which Port Moresby was given the honor of hosting in 2009, have taken longer than many had anticipated. The country's ability to host the event in time was uncertain in 2011, according to the PNG Pacific Games organizers. To evaluate the level of the games' preparation, Pacific Games Council President Vidhya Lakhan traveled to Port Moresby on April 26, 2012. On May 2, Lakhan made the announcement that Papua New Guinea will continue to serve as the 2015 Pacific Games host after a week-long presentation by the PNG Pacific Games Venue, Infrastructure and Equipment Committee (VIEC).

Venues and infrastructure

A total of 14 venues hosted 28 sports in Port Moresby.

Competition venues
Venue	Sports		Capacity
Sir John Guise Stadium	Athletics (track and field) Rugby sevens Rugby league nines		15,000
Sir John Guise Sports Complex (outdoor)	Beach Volleyball Field Hockey
Sir John Guise Stadium (indoor)	Basketball (finals) Netball Powerlifting Weightlifting		2,000
Port Moresby Racquets Club	Squash Tennis		1,000
Taurama Aquatic Centre	Swimming		2,000
Taurama Indoor Centre	Basketball (preliminary rounds) Karate Taekwondo Volleyball		2,500
Bisini Parade Sports Complex	Cricket Lawn bowls Football (Preliminary rounds) Softball Touch rugby		10,000
Royal Port Moresby Golf Club	Golf
Ela Beach and PNGDF Naval Base	Va'a Triathlon (swimming)
Royal Papua Yacht Club (Fairfax Harbour)	Sailing
Caritas Technical Secondary School Gym	Body building Boxing Table Tennis		1,100
June Valley Shooting Range	Shooting		500
Sir Hubert Murray Stadium	Football (finals) Triathlon (finish)		20,477

Sports Complex

There were two major sporting complexes that played host to many sports. The Sir John Guise complex which hosted nine different sporting codes namely Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Rugby 7s, Rugby league nines, beach volleyball, field hockey, and Athletics. The Bisini Parade Sports Complex was the other sports complex that hosted football, cricket, softball, Touch rugby and lawn bowls.

Games baton

The 2015 Pacific Games baton was revealed on 23 February 2015 in Port Moresby. The baton was designed and created by Gickmai Kundun, a well known local artist from the Simbu Province. Shaped as an hourglass, the baton depicts a kundu drum which traditionally is used as a communication tool. It (baton) is made out of one of Papua New Guinea's major resource commodity, copper. Kundun said the purpose of the games baton was to unite the people of Papua New Guinea, and the kundu drum was the perfect fit. ^[11]

Games baton relay

On 25 March 2015, in Port Moresby, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Hon. Peter O'Neill formally launched the Games baton relay. ^[12] The journey started on March 26 to officially celebrate exactly 100 days till the opening ceremony. Over 150 remote villages, as well as all 22 cities and towns in the 22 provinces, were visited by the baton's tour. The baton paid a special visit to Cairns, Australia, on June 20 to give the sizable Papua New Guinean community a chance to see it firsthand. ^[13] The relay proceeded for the following five days when the baton landed in the National Capital District (the host province) on June 29. ^[14]

The baton ended its journey at the opening ceremony on 4 July 2015, where Olympian and Commonwealth weightlifting champion Dika Toua took to the heights of the Sir John Guise Stadium to light the Games Cauldron. ^[15]

Volunteers

From over 6,000 volunteer applications received by the chief executive officer for the 2015 games, only 3,500 of this applicants were carefully screened and handpicked during the recruitment phase. The 3,500 volunteers were then divided into 175 teams that worked throughout the games in key functional areas such as games village operations, transport, technology, logistics and translators etc.

The Games

The official dates of the 2015 Pacific Games were July 4 to 18, however, competitions for Basketball, Football, Table tennis, and Touch rugby began on July 3 (one day earlier).

Sports

Kyle Husslein playing basketball for Guam at the 2015 Pacific Games

There were 28 sports featured at the 2015 Pacific Games. ^[16]

•   Athletics (48)
•   Basketball (2)
•   Beach volleyball (2)
•   Bodybuilding (12)
•   Boxing (13)
•   Cricket (2)
•   Field hockey (2)
•   Football (2)
•   Golf (4)
•   Karate (15)
•   Lawn bowls (8)
•   Netball (1)
•   Outrigger canoeing (12)
•   Powerlifting (15)
•   Rugby league nines (1)
•   Rugby sevens (2)
•   Sailing (6)
•   Shooting (11)
•   Softball (1)
•   Squash (7)
•   Swimming (35)
•   Table tennis (11)
•   Taekwondo (16)
•   Tennis (7)
•   Touch rugby (3)
•   Triathlon (2)
•   Volleyball (2)
•   Weightlifting (45)

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

Participating countries

A total of 24 countries took part in the 2015 Pacific Games. This was with the inclusion of Australia and New Zealand for the first time in the history of the Games. The two countries were invited to participate in four sports; sailing, taekwondo, rugby sevens and weightlifting.

The Pacific Games Council said in July 2014 that the participation of the two countries would improve the quality of competition in the Pacific Games. The inclusion of Australia and New Zealand was on a trial basis, with a review scheduled after the Games to determine its success.

Participating Pacific Games Associations (PGA)

American Samoa  (91)   Australia  (43)   Cook Islands  (132)   Federated States of Micronesia  (44)   Fiji  (481)   Guam  (148)   Kiribati  (86)   Marshall Islands  (10)   Nauru  (130)   New Caledonia  (354)   New Zealand  (49)   Niue  (22)   Norfolk Island  (13)   Northern Mariana Islands  (26)   Palau  (14)   Papua New Guinea  (625)(host)   Samoa  (405)   Solomon Islands  (287)   Tahiti  (273)   Tokelau  (1)   Tonga  (236)   Tuvalu  (101)   Vanuatu  (161)   Wallis and Futuna  (64)

Note: A number in parentheses indicates how many athletes were registered prior to the Games, with that number expected to diminish by the Games' start. Clicking on the number will take you to a page on that nation's delegation to the 2015 Games.

Calendar

The following table provides a summary of the competition schedule. ^[17]

All dates are Papua New Guinea Time (UTC+10)

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

●

Olympic qualifying finals

1

Event finals

CC

Closing ceremony

July		3 Fri	4 Sat	5 Sun	6 Mon	7 Tue	8 Wed	9 Thu	10 Fri	11 Sat	12 Sun	13 Mon	14 Tue	15 Wed	16 Thu	17 Fri	18 Sat	Events
Ceremonies			OC														CC
Athletics												5	11	7	14	9	2	48
Basketball		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	2							2
Beach volleyball												●	●	●	●	●	2	2
Bodybuilding												12						12
Boxing													●	●	●	3	10	13
Cricket					●	●		●	●	1		●	●	●		●	1	2
Field hockey												●	●		●	●	2	2
Football		●		●	●	●	●		●	●	●	●		●	1	1		2
Golf														●	●	●	4	4
Karate												10	7					17
Lawn bowls												●	●	4	●	●	4	8
Netball												●	●	●	●	●	1	1
Outrigger canoeing					4	4			2	2								12
Powerlifting								●	15									15
Rugby league nines										●	1							1
Rugby sevens							●	●	2									2
Sailing					●	●	●	●	●	6								6
Shooting					2	2	1	2	1	3								11
Softball														●	●	1		1
Squash					●	●	●	2	●	●		●	2	●	2	1		7
Swimming					7	6	7	7	6	7	2							42
Table tennis		●	●	●	2	●	5	2	2									11
Taekwondo															8	8	2	18
Tennis					●	●	●	2	●	●		●	●	●	3	2		7
Touch rugby		●	●	●	●	2	●	●	1									3
Triathlon				3														3
Volleyball										●	●	●	●	●	●	●	2	2
Weightlifting				12	12	12	9											45
Total events				15	27	26	22	15	29	19	5	27	29	11	28	25	30	299
Cumulative total				15	42	68	90	105	134	153	158	185	205	216	244	269	299
July		Fri 3	Sat 4	Sun 5	Mon 6	Tue 7	Wed 8	Thu 9	Fri 10	Sat 11	Sun 12	Mon 13	Tue 14	Wed 15	Thu 16	Fri 17	Sat 18	Events

Medal table

Host nation Papua New Guinea topped the overall medal table for only the second time ever. It was also the third Pacific Games in history where New Caledonia had failed to finish first. ^[18]

  *   Host nation (Papua New Guinea)

2015 Pacific Games medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Papua New Guinea*	88	69	60	217
2	New Caledonia	59	50	57	166
3	Tahiti	39	34	40	113
4	Fiji	33	44	37	114
5	Samoa	17	23	11	51
6	Australia	17	19	11	47
7	Nauru	7	10	5	22
8	Solomon Islands	7	6	15	28
9	Tonga	7	1	9	17
10	Cook Islands	6	7	16	29
11	Guam	3	3	7	13
12	Kiribati	3	1	5	9
13	American Samoa	3	1	4	8
14	Federated States of Micronesia	3	1	0	4
15	Vanuatu	2	8	12	22
16	Norfolk Island	2	3	2	7
17	New Zealand	1	9	10	20
18	Wallis and Futuna	1	1	5	7
19	Tuvalu	1	0	3	4
20	Niue	0	1	1	2
	Palau	0	1	1	2
22	Marshall Islands	0	0	5	5
23	Northern Mariana Islands	0	0	0	0
	Tokelau	0	0	0	0
Totals (24 entries)		299	292	316	907

Ceremonies

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held at the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, between 18:00 and 22:00 (GMT+10), on 4 July 2015. The Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of Papua New Guinea, Queen Elizabeth II, was represented by her son, Prince Andrew, Duke of York. ^[19] Airleke Ingram was its artistic director, with executive producer being Merryn Hughes from the Makoda Productions. Live musical performers included Jamie-Lee Chan, Jagarizzar, with Ngaire Joseph, and duo group Twin Tribe who performed Winds of Change as the closing act. A special performance by Sir George Telek and a medley from Papua New Guinea's all-time music greats - the Paramana Strangers, Pati Potts Doi, and Tom Larry.

Parade of nations

As per games tradition, each PGA paraded into the arena for the opening ceremony with each delegation being led by a flag bearer from their respective teams. Following tradition, the host of the previous games, New Caledonia, enters first followed by the rest of the participating PGA's in alphabetical order. The host nation of Papua New Guinea enters last. Each nation was preceded by a placard bearer carrying a sign with the country's name.

Below is a list of parading countries and their announced flag bearer, in the same order as the parade. This is sortable by country name, flag bearer's name, or flag bearer's sport.

Order	Nation	Flag bearer	Sport
1	New Caledonia
2	American Samoa
3	Australia	Nicole Beck	Rugby sevens
4	Cook Islands	Tereapii Tapoki	Athletics
5	Federated States of Micronesia	Manuel Minginfel	Weightlifting
6	Fiji	Apolonia Vaivai	Weightlifting
7	Guam	Jagger Stephens	Swimming
8	Kiribati	David Katoatao	Weightlifting
9	Marshall Islands	Mathlynn Robert-Sasser	Weightlifting
10	Nauru	Itte Detenamo	Weightlifting
11	New Zealand	Tracey Lambrechs	Weightlifting
12	Niue
13	Norfolk Island	Kevin Coulter	Shooting
14	Northern Mariana Islands
15	Palau	Stevick Patris	Weightlifting
16	Samoa	Ele Opeloge	Weightlifting
17	Solomon Islands	Jenly Tegu Wini	Weightlifting
18	Tahiti
19	Tokelau	Volunteer	n/a
20	Tonga
21	Tuvalu
22	Vanuatu	Cyril Jacobe	Tennis
23	Wallis and Futuna
24	Papua New Guinea	Linda Pulsan	Powerlifting

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was held at Sir John Guise Stadium on Saturday 18 July 2015 and was produced by Makoda Productions. Papua New Guinean music stars Jay Lieasi, Jamie-Lee Chan, duo group Twin Tribe, and Moses Tau were among the opening acts of the ceremony. Pacific Games Council President Vidhya Lakhan passed the Pacific Games flag to Nuku'alofa, Tonga, host of the 2019 Games, and declared the XV Pacific Games closed. Closing performances followed with 2015 PNG Musik Awards Artist of the Year Anslom singing his hit song “Can’t Lie”, while other performers included American-Samoan reggae vocalist J Boog, Fijian hip-hop star George FIJI, PNG-American reggae musician O-Shen, and PNG's local icon and ARIA Music Awards winner George Telek, MBE.

Marketing

Tura the Kokomo

Mascot

The official mascot for the 2015 games, 'Tura the Kokomo', was designed by a 13-year-old boy named Taka Seigori from Tubusereia, a motuan village - located 30 minutes drive from Port Moresby. 'Tura the Kokomo' depicts a modern, cheeky and funny Hornbill - known in Papua New Guinea as a 'Kokomo'. The bird is known to possess the attributes of friendliness and cheekiness. Colours seen on the crown of 'Tura the Kokomo' are the colours of the 2015 Pacific Games logo. ^[20]

Sponsors

Official Games Sponsor	Bank South Pacific (BSP)
Games Baton Relay Sponsor	Oil Search
Platinum Sponsors	OK Tedi Mining, Telikom PNG, PNG Power, National Gaming Control Board (NGCB), Puma Energy, SP Brewery
Gold Sponsors	MRDC, Daltron, Brian Bell Homecentres, Applus Velosi, Fuji Xerox, Air Niugini, Petromin PNG Holdings Limited, Emtek Multimedia, Coca-Cola, Steamships
Silver Sponsors	Moore Printing, Hertz, MMI Pacific Insurance
Supporting Sponsor	PNG Ports

See also

• 2016 Summer Olympics
• 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
• 2017 Pacific Mini Games
• 2018 Commonwealth Games

Notes

^a Athletics: The total of 48 events contested in 2015 included four parasport events: Men's shot put – secured throw, women's shot put – ambulatory, men's javelin – ambulatory, and men's 100m – ambulatory. ^[21]

^b Boxing: Women's events were included for 2015. The weight classes used by the IOC, i.e. flyweight (48–51 kg), lightweight (57–60 kg), and middleweight (69–75 kg) were added to the schedule. ^[22] There were ten weight classes for men. ^[23]

^c Football: Men's tournament had eight teams (including New Zealand) and the women's had seven teams. Both were qualification events for the 2016 Summer Olympics. ^[24]

^d Karate: The Kumite tournament included six weight divisions for men and five for women. The schedule also included individual and team Kata events for men and women. ^[25]

^e Men's softball was not able to be included in the program as the sport did not meet the criterion of the Pacific Games charter requiring nominations for the event from at least six countries. Women's softball was included. ^{[26] [27]}

^f Swimming: The schedule for Taurama Pool included 40 events; 19 for men, 19 for women, and two mixed team relays. ^[28] The open water swim also included a men's event and a women's event. ^[29]

^g Table tennis: The total of 11 events contested in 2015 included four parasport events: Men's singles – seated, women's singles – seated, men's singles – ambulatory, and women's singles – ambulatory. ^[30]

^h Weightlifting: The total of 45 events contested in 2015 was split into 15 weight classes (eight for men and seven for women) with three sets of medals awarded (for the snatch, clean and jerk, and combined total) in each class. ^[31]

References

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8. "2015 Pacific Games bids face strict requirements". www.fijivillage.com. Fiji Village. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
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10. PNG2015 - Papua New Guinea Wins, published by the Pacific Games Council, on 8 October 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2009.
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13. "Games baton visits Cairns". www.looppng.com. Loop PNG. Archived from the original on September 8, 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
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16. "Sports". Port Moresby 2015. 2015. Archived from the original on 6 March 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
17. "2015 Pacific Games Schedule" (PDF). Port Moresby 2015. 4 June 2015. Archived from the original (PDF 1.0 MB) on 7 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
18. PG Results 2015, p. 3.
19. "Prince Andrew to Open 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby". pngfacts.com. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
20. "2015 Pacific Games mascot launched". www.thenational.com.pg. The National. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
21. "Program Draft - Pacific Games - John Guise Stadium" (PDF). Papua New Guinea Swimming Inc. 26 May 2015. Archived from the original (PDF 0.1 MB) on 7 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
22. "Correction to PG 2015 Women Boxers Weight Categories". Sporting Pulse. Oceania Sport Information Centre. 22 February 2014. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
23. "PNG Boxers finalise tune-up for Pacific Games". 2015 Pacific Games. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
24. Soccer venues unveiled Archived 2015-07-14 at the Wayback Machine . Fiji Times. 16 May 2015.
25. Mari, Carl (4 June 2015). "Karate names XV Pacific Games team". PNG Warrior. Archived from the original on 5 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
26. "Softball dropped for PNG". Solomon Star. 16 April 2014. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
27. "Men's Softball Competition Out" (Press release). PNG 2015 Pacific Games. 22 May 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
28. "XV Pacific Games 2015" (PDF 0.2 MB). Papua New Guinea Swimming Inc. 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
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30. "Table Tennis Schedule". Port Moresby 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
31. "Weightlifting Schedule". Port Moresby 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.

Sources

• 2015 Pacific Games Results (PDF 39.7 MB). Oceania Sport Information Centre (Report). Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2015.

External links

• 2015 Pacific Games results archive on the Oceania Sport Information Centre webpage
• Official website