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Pacific Oceania Junior Teams Announced
The ITF Pacific Oceania 12/u team to New Zealand will play tournaments in Hamilton, Gisborne and Auckland during December. The players are: Michael Emery (PYF), Tiernan Breen (FIJ), Negahr Rastguiy (NMI), Vinda Teally (SOL), Mulan Kamoe (FIJ), Ayana Rengiil (PAL) and Kelani Chene (PYF). The team coach will be RTC coach Gene Ridgway and the coach/manager Dan O'Connell.
The 16 member team for the Australian tour which starts with the Margaret Court teams event in Albury on 5 January is: Tammy Ackerman (NMI), Lorraine Banimataku (VAN), Chris Hargrove (FIJ), Rafael Jones (NMI), Tarani Kamoe (FIJ), Heve Kelley (PYF), pictured above, Christian Miller (NMI), Thea Minor (NMI), Alesi Molotii (TUV), Tamarua Payne (COK), pictured below, Lorish Puluspene (PNG), TJ Rush (FSM), Chris Sami (ASA), Annie Shannon (FIJ), Marcia Tere-Apisah (PNG), and Teba Tito (KIR). The team coach will be Gene Ridgway and the manager Dan O'Connell. The team will finish their tour by attending the first two days of the Australian Open.
Following the Australian tournaments a smaller group will continue on to New Zealand to play in three ITF junior world ranking tournaments. The first is in Ashburton 100km south of Christchurch beginning on 23 January. The others are in Auckland and Wellington. The players in this team, many of them pictured below in NMMI T-shirts, are Chris Hargrove, Marcia Tere-Apisah, Tarani Kamoe, Annie Shannon, Lorraine Banimataku, Lorish Puluspene, Thea Minor and Alesi Molotii. The team will be joined by six players from New Caledonia. The coaches with the combined team will be Gene Ridgway and New caledonia coach Gerard Winter.
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Pacific Oceania Junior Championships
Two beautifully fine days brought out the best tennis from the players for the semis and finals of the 2011 PaOCJ played in Fiji.The tennis was of a high standard across the West, East and North Pacific teams resulting in the narrowest points win ever for the West team.
The 18/u division was dominated by players based at the ITF Regional Training Centre in Lautoka. Marcia Tere-Apisah (PNG), pictured second from left in NMMI T-shirt, narrowly beat longtime rival Tarani Kamoe (FIJ), on right, in three long sets to take the girls singles final. The girls are pictured with Zelika Vidic who is the women's tennis coach at new Mexico Military Institute in USA where a number of the Pacific's tennis players have gone on scholarships. In the boys' final Fiji's Chris Hargrove upset top seed Luke Paeni (SOL) to claim his first title.
The 15/u division was played for the first time this year replacing the 14/u. The boys singles was won by Heve Kelley from Tahiti, to celebrate Tahiti's first participation in the tournament since French Polynesia/Tahit became members of ITF.The girls singles was won by last year's 14/u champion Alesi Molotii from Tuvalu.
The very popular 12/u division was played for the second year at the Nadi Sports Club where the young players had a great time and played so excellent tennis. Like last year the girls 12/u was dominated by the North Pacific players with Tammy Ackerman (NMI) beating Negahr Rastgiuy to take the title. In the boys Tahiti's Michael Emery who was dominant throughout the event triumphing over local Fiji player Tiernan Breen in the final.
For full results please go to the junior section of the website and open the pdf file for POJC final results.
East Pacific Qualifying - Samoa
Report from Dan O'Connell
57 players participated in the East Pacific Qualifying (EPQ) Event hosted by Tennis Samoa. There were 8 players from Tonga, 17 from American Samoa and 32 from host nation Samoa. I thank tournament director Yvonne Carruthers for all of her hard work and also the coaches Nito Hausia and Venoni Afemui of Tonga, Tino Roberts of American Samoa and Pepe McDermott of Samoa. The coaches and players have worked hard all year waiting for this regional event. Prior to the EPQ, the Tonga Team arrived a week early for a one week preparation training camp conducted by Nito.
The photo shows Nito Hausia talking with players.
The winner and runner-up in the EPQ 12s and 15s qualified for the POJC to be held in Fiji in August. Only the winner in the 18s qualified for the POJC.Following the opening ceremony we had great weather for three full days. On Thursday we started the morning with rain and we ended the day with rain. The EPQ singles event was three matches short of completion Thursday evening. Friday morning those three matches were completed and then the enjoyable and competitive doubles tournament was played.
ANZ Manager Edwinnar Siosifa joined us at the impressive closing ceremony. I was happy to hear Edwinnar praise the ANZ mini tennis work Yvonne conducts in primary schools. Edwinnar presented ANZ hats and water bottles to the EPQ tennis players. Fantastic evening! Thank you ANZ!!!
I retire at the end of the year. I was able to thank Moana Soonalole and his family for billeting me this week and at least one week each year for twenty years! Moana, you will always be my special friend. I wish Mark Moors and his new Committee all the best. Tennis Samoa has been a regional leader the past two decades. I have been fortunate to work with all of you. Thank you. Keep up the great work!
For full results please go to the junior section of the website and open the pdf file for EPQ 2011
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