12 month Countdown to 14th Pacific Games

To mark the start of the final year of preparations for the 14th Pacific Games, 22 delegations from across Oceania have visited New Caledonia to review the organisational progress for the 14th staging of the event.

New Caledonia will be hosting the Pacific Games from 27th August to 10th September 2011.

Held every four years, the Pacific Games attract top athletes from all over Oceania. First held in Fiji in 1963 as the South Pacific Games, the event was established to provide a major multi-sports event bringing together athletes from Oceania's island states.

The 2011 Pacific Games will welcome 5,000 athletes and officials representing 27 sporting disciplines. The events and competitions will be held at 37 sites spread over 10 New Caledonian municipal districts.

Ambassadors for the event include Diane Bui Duyet, holder of the 100 metre butterfly short-course world record; Nyipiengo Passa, the first New Caledonian delegation standard bearer at the 1963 Fiji Games; Olympic windsurfing world champion Michel Quintin; Paralympic athletics champion Pierre Fairbank; and FIFA World Cup football champion Christian Karembeu.

For more information go to www.nc2011.nc/