Daily Archives: June 24, 2017

During the Olympic Day celebrations held yesterday in Port Moresby, Leon Thomas of Oceania Fencing introduced the sport to students from different schools.

The Oceania region is considered as a development zone of fencing and Thomas believes that if they spread the word and generate more interest, the code can gain a following in other Oceania countries considering PNGs population, geography and influence in the region.

Thomas, who took part in four World Fencing Championships, was pleased with the interest shown by participants in Port Moresby.

Its great to see the interest from the kids here. Fencing has grown largely in Oceania countries like Samoa, New Caledonia and Tahiti but we want to target PNG because it has a large population and having fencing introduced and grown here could help it grow in Oceania, said Thomas.

Thomas explained that current fencers in Oceania qualify for the Olympics through Asia, but if the code grows in Oceania, then the region could have its own qualifying pathway to the Olympics.

Fencing was one of the original nine sports in the inaugural modern Olympic Games played in Athens, Greece in 1896.

It is one of only four sports that have been featured at every single Olympic competitions since 1896.

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PNG can help fencing grow in Oceania - Loop PNG

Ten of Otagos top athletes are preparing for a break from winter.

The athletes, plus two Otago coaches, are set to head to Suva, Fiji, and its mid-20degC weather.

There they will compete as part of the 56-strong New Zealand team at the Oceania Area Championships.

The group includes decathletes Felix McDonald and Cameron Miller, middle distance runner Nathan Hill, 400m and 800m runner Sam Gouverneur and thrower Hamish Mears.

It also includes Southland athletes Anton Schroeder and Liam Turner, who both attend Otago Boys High School.

Local coach Megan Gibbons will travel with the team and is responsible for helping the sprinters and hurdlers.

As well, para-athletes Anna Grimaldi, Holly Robinson and Jess Hamill will use the meeting as part of their preparation for Julys world championships.

Otagos Raylene Bates is the high performance manager of that group.The championships are a development meetingin which New Zealand athletes wear white singlets.

Such meetings help them on to the pathway to silver singlet meetings and, ultimately, world meetings, at which they wear black.

They allow youngsters to get a taste of international competition and compete in a different environment.

Aside from the para team, the Otago athletes attending are young, either at school or not long left. However, Gibbons felt they could go well and said it would be a good experience.

"I think theyll go OK. They do have medal chances, absolutely.

"There will be some challenges for them, like Felix and Cam are doing the combined events, so competing in a decathlon in 30-degree heat might be a bit of a challenge for them.

"But I think for the likes of Hamish and Anton and Nathan, its their first competition outside of New Zealand really, unless theyve been to Australian champs, so its sort of that next step up."

The heat represented a big challenge for Dunedin athletes coming from a cold winter, as did going into the competition out of season.

While the temperature was often a nice change, it was the humidity that Gibbons said could be hard to adapt to.

However, many of the group had been aqua jogging in the heated physio pool to try to simulate that.

The standard of competition varied.In some events, the standard could be high and competition for medals stiff, but others were at a lower level.

The championships begin on June 28 and go through to July 1.

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Otago athletes to face the heat in Oceania champs - Otago Daily Times

Four senior track and field athletes, who left the country yesterday, will be joined by U18 and U20 sprint and relay athletes tomorrow with the last lot of athletes to fly out on Sunday.

The U18 and U20 sprinters who are leaving for Fiji for the Oceania Championships tomorrow, travelled to Port Moresby, representing Kimbe, Rabaul, Manus and Lae.

The team met with the PNG high Performance Team yesterday, to go through a few things that athletes must know when traveling overseas, especially when representing the country.

Some of the things touched on and covered with the athletes were anti-doping processes, recovery after and during the competition, resilience and team building.

Traveling for the first tomorrow with the team will be Team Coach for U18 and U20 Sprints and relay team, Allan Akia, who believes the team has worked hard over the last few months in preparations for the Oceania Championships.

In Fiji, the competition categories will cover three groups, U18, U20 and the open division. Some of the events listed for the PNG side will cover 100m and 200m sprints, the 800m and 1500m races, and the relay race for both the Mens and Womens events.

Allan said he is happy with the selection of the team, based on their past and previous competition results. Athletes participating in the Oceania championships, may find themselves represent their respective provinces in the PNG Games, and the country at the Mini- Pacific Games.

Their Team Coach believes based on their home ground performances, theres a fair chance of at least bagging some medals.

Toea Wisil, dubbed the Pacific Sprint Queen will be travelling from Australia and joining the team in Fiji.

Wisil, whoholds the record in Oceania in the one hundred meter sprint, will be leading the PNG side and participating in her respective events.

Wisil will also be using the opportunity to train for international events.

All athletes will be closely monitored as they perform in front of the PNG athletics Union President, Tony Green.

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PNG Athletes Leave Country for Oceania Championships EMTV ... - EMTV Online

THE Oceania Athletics Association is anticipating a successful 2017 Oceania Athletics Championship which will be held at the ANZ Stadium in Suva next week.

Oceania Athletics Association president Geoff Gardner said they were expecting a record number of athletes to compete in the four-day competition.

"There are regional championship on the agenda where we have Melanesian Championship, Micronesian Championship and Polynesian Championship and this week during the seminar the member federations will be deciding where the championships will be hosted.

"Fiji may put their hand up for championship.

"Fiji is one of our biggest federations and they hosted the Melanesian Championship in Suva and they brought together the biggest area of championship and with a record of over 600 athletes competing in the championship."

He said the spectators would get to see the best athletes in the region compete.

"It is going to be a tremendous event and judging by the conduct of the Melanesian Games it was an outstanding success and I see no reason as why this is not going to match that and I am sure we are going to surpass that.

"We are encouraging many people to come and watch the athletics.

"There will be some of the best athletes in the Pacific who will be competing during the competition."

The competition will be held from Thursday.

The rest is here:

Oceania's best compete in Suva - Fiji Times

5 Feb 2017, 12:15 a.m.

There's icy glaciers waiting to cool you down.

If our sweltering summer has you fantasising about snow-capped mountains and icy glaciers, a look at what's on offer in the way of Alaska cruises this year might have a cooling effect.

Alaska's cruising season runs from late April to September and most mainstream cruise lines as well as some luxury and adventure lines send one or more ships there. The biggest operators are Princess Cruises, which has six ships in Alaska in 2017 and Holland America Line, which has seven. Other lines operating mid-size to large ships there are Carnival Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line.

Luxury lines sending smaller ships to Alaska, although not for the whole season, include Crystal Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, Seabourn and Silversea. And if you're after a more off-the-beaten-track experience, check out Lindblad Expeditions and UnCruise Adventures, whose much smaller vessels sail where the big ones can't go. So you'll have plenty of ships to choose from the question is, when is the best time to go?

For a start, the weather varies considerably. The peak months of the season, June to August, are the warmest with long hours of daylight, but they are also the wettest and most crowded it's not unusual for the popular ports along the Inside Passage to have up to six big ships in on the same day. However, summer is the best time for spotting bears.

Fares also vary according to when you go and are generally cheaper in late-April and May and September. For example, a seven-day round-trip Inside Passage cruise from Vancouver on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam costs $1569 in April, $2109 in June and $1549 in September. The disadvantages of shoulder season cruises are cooler temperatures and in April to May, the possibility of late snowfalls however the Northern Lights are sometimes spotted in September and the autumn colours of the trees and tundra are quite spectacular.

While there is a host of highly attractive cruise-land packages that combine a cruise with rail trips and stays in wilderness lodges in Denali National Park, most Alaska cruise-only itineraries are between seven and 10 days and are one-way or round-trip from Vancouver or Seattle; or one-way between Vancouver or Seattle and Anchorage. These take in the Inside Passage, the magnificent sheltered waterway that's surrounded by steep mountain walls, massive glaciers, dramatic fjords and vast tracts of rainforest. Ships typically call at ports such as Juneau (Alaska's capital), Ketchikan, Haines and Skagway and spend a day cruising in Glacier Bay National Park.

NAME Jeffrey Jack, from St Vincent, living in Belgrade.

POSITION Hotel Manager, Windstar's Wind Spirit.

MY JOB is to make sure Windstar's culture and standards are displayed on every sailing we do. We are all about small-ship cruising, less travelled destinations and laid-back luxury. I am responsible for crew training and I lead the services team, working closely with the captain to provide these services to all our guests by setting the tone and creating a fun working environment in all departments.

A TYPICAL DAY starts about 5.30am with a walk around all areas to check they're ready to receive guests. I meet the chef and dining room manager to make sure all items for the day's menu are in place and whether we need to buy anything locally to add to the menus. The bridge team and I address issues that might affect guests during the day, for example whether we can open the marina platform or not (it depends on wind and sea conditions). Before lunch and dinner I join the chef for tastings and during service I chat with guests and invite those who are interested in star-gazing up to the bridge for an informal Q&A with the officers. And every day I Facetime my children.

FAVOURITE CRUISE MOMENT There are so many! When I first stepped onboard Wind Spirit I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! But meeting my wife on board Wind Surf is the standout.

FAVOURITE CRUISE PORT In French Polynesia, it's Fakarava, an unspoilt island we visit on our Tuamotu itinerary. Its reef system has been classified as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve so the diving is incredible. In Europe, I love Istanbul and Ephesus and hope the geopolitics improve so we can sail there again.

INSIDER TIPS If you love being at sea, take a Transatlantic crossing. There are sunrises and sunsets to die for seeing the green flash at sunset is often a highlight.

Take a photo of your luggage in case it gets lost at an airport much easier than trying to describe it to officials.

Revel in the glamour of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix with Latitude 33's new fly/stay/cruise package. The 14-night trip features an all-inclusive cruise on board Silver Spirit from Barcelona to Rome and leaves Australia on May 19. After two nights at Raffles Dubai you fly to Barcelona for a night in the elegant El Palace before boarding Silver Spirit. The ship will be in Cannes for two days during the famous film festival but the highlight is spending the weekend in Monaco for The Grand Prix. Tickets to view the thrilling race are included in the fare. Other ports of call include Ste in France, Ajaccio in Corsica and Portofino and Livorno in Italy. Two nights at the historic Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese in Rome is a suitably grand finale to the trip. See latitude33.travel

Cruise Express' 15-night 'Journey to the Northern Lights' fly/cruise/tour itinerary traces the fjord-studded coastline of Norway north above the Arctic Circle all the way to the Russian border. The cruise tour offers the chance to witness the Aurora Borealis magical swirls of light that illuminate Norway's night sky in winter. The package includes two nights in Oslo with city tours, rail journeys to Voss and Bergen, 'Norway in a Nutshell' Flm Railway and fjord cruise, and a six-night cruise from Bergen to Kirkenes onboard Hurtigruten's 691-passenger ship, MS Kong Harald. At Kirkenes you stay at the SnowHotel, where the rooms are carved from ice, and take a dog sled ride through the forest, before returning to Oslo for a night and flying back to Australia. The tour departs on February 9, 2018; see cruiseexpress.com.au

For the first time, Silversea Cruises is offering Australian travellers complimentary flights to Europe for select voyages in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, departing from April to November 2017. The new program offers passengers a choice of the following flight options aboard an appropriate Emirates or Silversea partner airline flight added to their cruise: an economy class air round-trip from within Australia; an option to upgrade to business class for $4998 a person; or a credit of $1000 a person if the flight options are not used. All-inclusive cruise fares start from $4275, for Silver Spirit's eight-day cruise from Barcelona to Rome departing on November 3. Additional bonuses also apply when you book by February 28; see silversea.com

Take a Lindblad Expeditions voyage in 2018 at 2017 prices when you book by March 31, 2017. A 10-day Galapagos Islands cruise package includes two nights in Guayaquil, flights to the Galapagos, the seven-night cruise and all guided excursions. Fares start from $8700 for departures on select dates between January 1 and December 31, 2018. Phone Adventure World on 1300 295 049, see adventureworld.com

UTracks, a division of World Expeditions, is celebrating its 10th birthdayby offering 10 classic European trips at their original 2007 brochure price. One for cruise fans is France's Loire Valley Bike & Barge trip, which is on sale for $1490 until March 3. Phone 1300 303 368, see utracks.com

UNIWORLD Save $980 a person when you book the seven-night Enchanting Danube river cruise on SS Maria Theresa by February 28, 2017. Fares start at $3919 and include unlimited beverages on board and hosted excursions. The offer is available on select itineraries between Budapest and Passau from April to November 2017. Phone 1300 780 231, see uniworld.com

The story Ocean cruises: Cool down in Alaska with Crystal Cruises, Oceania Cruises and more first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Ocean cruises: Cool down in Alaska with Crystal Cruises, Oceania ... - Great Lakes Advocate