XV Pacific Games

Official logo of the Games
Host city	Port Moresby
Country	Papua New Guinea
Nations participating	24
Athletes participating	3,796[citation needed]
Events	299 in 28 sports
Opening ceremony	4 July
Closing ceremony	18 July
Officially opened by	Prince Andrew, Duke of York
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, 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

After Port Moresby were awarded the rights to host the 2015 games in 2009, preparations had been slow to what was expected by many. In 2011, the PNG pacific games organisers were unsure if the country would stage the games in time. On 26 April 2012, Pacific Games Council president Vidhya Lakhan arrived in Port Moresby to assess the state of preparation for the games. After a week long presentation by the PNG Pacific Games Venue, Infrastructure and Equipment Committee (VIEC), on May 2, on behalf of the Pacific Games council, Lakhan announced that Papua New Guinea will still host the 2015 Pacific Games.

Venues and infrastructure

A total of 14 venues hosted 28 sports at the 2015 Pacific Games 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 Sports Complex (outdoor field)	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 sports field was the other sports complex that hosted football, cricket, softball, Touch rugby and lawn bowls.

Medals

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

The 2015 Pacific Games baton relay was officially launched on 25 March 2015 by the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Hon Peter O'Neill in Port Moresby.^[12] The journey began on 26 March to officially mark 100 days to go till the opening ceremony. The baton travelled to all 22 cities and towns of the 22 provinces including more than 150 rural villages in the country. On June 20, the baton made a special visit to Cairns, Australia to give a chance to the large Papua New Gunean community to get a first hand glimpse.^[13] On 29 June, the baton arrived to the National Capital District (host province) where the relay continued for the last 5 days.^[14]

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.^[15]

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.

Calendar

The following table provides a summary of the competition schedule.^[16]

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.^[17]

Key

  Host nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Papua New Guinea*	88	69	60	217
2	New Caledonia	60	50	56	166
3	French Polynesia	39	34	41	114
4	Fiji	33	45	37	115
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	15	28
11	Guam	3	3	7	13
12	Kiribati	3	1	5	9
13	American Samoa	3	1	4	8
14	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 nations)		300	293	315	908

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.^[18] Airleke Ingram was it's 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	[[]]	[[]]
10	Nauru	Itte Detenamo	Weightlifting
11	New Zealand	[[]]	[[]]
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	[[]]	[[]]
23	Wallis and Futuna	[[]]	[[]]
24	Papua New Guinea	Linda Pulsan	Powerlifting

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 Tubuseria, 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.^[19]

Sponsors