 Zita Martel in 2011. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 15 July 1961 [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Samoa | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Archery | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Vaimasenu'u Zita Sefo-Martel (born 15 July 1961) is a Samoan women's rights activist, fautasi skipper, [2] [3] [4] and archer who has represented Samoa at the Pacific Games. She is also an honorary consul of France. [5]
Martel attended Canterbury University, where she had been a rower. [6]
In 2000, her local church needed a skipper for their longboat, or fautasi. [7] At first she refused the request, but was eventually persuaded to give it a try. [7] When she became the skipper for her church, she also became the first woman to act as captain in the fautasi races in 2001. [2] [8] Her boat won the race at Samoa's 50th independence celebrations in 2012. [9] In 2020 her crew won the Faleula to Apia fautasi race. [10]
She represented Samoa in archery at the 2007 Pacific Games in Apia, winning silver (alongside Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi and Eddie Chan Pao) in the mixed recurve matchplay [11] and in the individual compound. [12] At the 2011 Pacific Games in Nouméa she won gold in the compound matchplay [13] and bronze in the compound individual. [14]
Martel also speaks out against domestic violence in Samoa. [8] [15]
In 2013 Martel was made an officer of the French National Order of Merit. [8] [16]
