1979 South Pacific Games

1979 South Pacific Games

Host city	Suva
Country	Fiji
Nations participating	19
Athletes participating	2,672 ^*
Events	18 sports
Opening ceremony	August 28, 1979
Closing ceremony	September 8, 1979
Main venue	National Stadium (Suva)
<  1975 Guam 1983 Apia  >

The 1979 South Pacific Games, held at Suva in Fiji from 28 August to 8 September 1979, was the sixth edition of the South Pacific Games.^[1]

Participating countries

Nineteen Pacific nations or territories attended:^[2]

•  American Samoa
•  Cook Islands
•  Fiji
•  French Polynesia
•  Guam
•  Kiribati
•  Nauru
•  New Caledonia
•  New Hebrides
•  Niue
•  Norfolk Island
• Northern Marianas
•  Papua New Guinea
•  Solomon Islands
• Tokelau
•  Tonga
•  Tuvalu
• Wallis and Futuna
•  Western Samoa

Sports

There were 18 sports contested at the 1979 South Pacific Games:^†

• Athletics (37) ()
• Basketball (2)
• Boxing (11)
• Cricket (1)
• Field hockey (1)
• Football (1) ()
• Golf (4)
• Judo (9)
• Lawn bowls (8)
• Netball (1) ^a
• Rugby union (1) ()
• Sailing (1)
• Squash (2)
• Swimming (24) () ^b
• Table tennis (7) ^c
• Tennis (7)
• Volleyball (2)
• Weightlifting (10) ^d

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

Final medal table

New Caledonia topped the table again:^[1]

  The host country is highlighted in lavender blue

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	New Caledonia	33	43	26	102
2	French Polynesia	31	19	29	79
3	Fiji	22	16	24	62
4	Papua New Guinea	16	19	21	56
5	Guam	11	7	9	27
6	Western Samoa	10	11	6	27
7	American Samoa	4	1	7	12
8	Tonga	1	5	3	9
9	Cook Islands	1	2	3	6
10	New Hebrides	0	4	4	8
11	Norfolk Island	0	1	3	4
12	Wallis and Futuna	0	1	2	3
13	Solomon Islands	0	0	5	5
14	Kiribati	0	0	0	0
	Nauru	0	0	0	0
	Niue	0	0	0	0
	Northern Marianas	0	0	0	0
	Tokelau	0	0	0	0
	Tuvalu	0	0	0	0
Totals		129	129	142	400

See also

• Athletics at the 1979 South Pacific Games
• Football at the 1979 South Pacific Games

Notes

^* For the 1979 Games, 19 countries and a projected 2,672 athletes took part.^[1]

^† Eighteen sports as reported in Pacific Islands Monthly.^[3] The newly introduced sports were: cricket,^[4] hockey,^[5] lawn bowls,^[6] and squash.^[7]

^a Netball: In Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM), it was reported that "Papua New Guinea took the bronze" in the 1979 netball competition, behind Fiji and Cook Islands.^[8] However, a few pages later in PIM's results for the netball, Tonga is listed as finishing in third place.^[9]

^b Swimming: There were either 24 or 23 events on the programme, depending on whether the men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay was contested and officially included in the medals. A publication from Guam's Political Status Education Coordinating Commission claims that Guam swimmer Hollis Kimbrough, "won a record seven medals in the '79 SPG alone",^[10] and as such, the Pacific Islands Monthly results could be incomplete as only four medals are listed for Kimbrough there plus two men's relay medals for Guam – and the men's 4 × 200 is omitted.^[11]

^c Table tennis: There were seven events on the programme (or perhaps only six or five, depending on whether the respective team competitions for men and women were played and medals officially awarded). The five events for table tennis in the list of results from the November 1979 issue of Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM) are the mixed doubles, men's and women's singles and doubles.^[9] PIM reported earlier in the same issue that Fiji had won the women's team event (as well as the women's doubles),^[12] but neither women's or men's team events appear in the PIM results.

^d Weightlifting: Ten men's weight divisions were contested, with one medal event only per division (for the maximum total lift of snatch + clean-and-jerk).^[9]

References

1. "South Pacific Games 1979". Pacific Games Council. 2 February 2007. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
2. "South Pacific Games results". Pacific Islands Monthly (Pacific Publications) 50 (10). p. 137 (The Medal Winners). 1979. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
3. PIM 1979 (10), pp. 18–19.
4. "The History of Cricket in Vanuatu". Vanuatu Cricket. 8 March 2007. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
5. Aruafu, Carlos (27 May 2015). "Oceania proud of our hockey". Solomon Star. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
6. "Opening ceremony torch carriers". Pacific Mini Games Cook Islands 2009. 9 October 2009. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
7. "...that in 1978 Squash was included for the FIRST time". Squash Fiji. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
8. & PIM 1979 (10), 15, § Netball.
9. & PIM 1979 (10), p. 19.
10. I manfåyi, Who's who in Chamorro history, Volume 3 (Report). Political Status Education Coordinating Commission (Guam). 2003. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
11. PIM 1979 (10), p. 18.
12. & PIM 1979 (10), 16, § Table Tennis.

Sources

• "Last of the Super Games/The Medal Winners" (PDF 0.8 MB). Pacific Island Monthly 50 (10). 1979. Retrieved 5 November 2015.

• 1979 South Pacific Games Results. Oceania Sport Information Centre (Report). Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.