The 2003 South

Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games wer ...

were held in Suva, Fiji from 28 June to 12 July 2003. They are also known as the XII South Pacific Games. The Games were the 12th ''South

'' to be held since the event's inception and were the 40th anniversary of their beginnings in 1963. It was also the third time in the event's history that they had been hosted in Suva. For the first time, the Games included both traditional

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

disciplines such as

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

together with region-specific and smaller events such as

outrigger canoe Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger ...

ing, surfing and

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

. Almost 5,000 athletes participated in the Games.

Organisation

Fijian government funding aided by a $16 million aid package from the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

saw the construction of a new

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

nasium and indoor sports center, swimming pool and stadium,

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

pitch and stands as well as the upgrading of existing facilities for other sports. A strong corporate sponsorship package (including some 20 corporate sponsors), a first for the games, enabled the organizers to expand the scope of the event. A colorful media and publicity campaign - including the Games' mascot, a blue lizard named ''Tau'' (meaning "friend" in Fijian) - generated interest and enthusiasm amongst the Fijian public. Schools and youth groups were involved in interactive programs such as the adopt-a-country program. The 2003 SPG were the biggest Games to date. There were some 300 medal ceremonies with over 860 presentations and 2,300 individual medals.

Sports

The following sports were competed:

Note: Full results for all sports have been published on th
2003 SPG official website

Results

Hosts Fiji won the first gold medals of the games in women's archery and went on to top the

medal count to add to their best-ever medal haul at the SPG.

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

retained its place in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

winning their second SPG gold medal. The

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

final saw

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

overcome Fiji by a single run for the gold medal. Fijian athletics dominated the

events winning a total of 19 gold medals. Makelesi Bulikiombo, the Fijian flag-bearer in the opening ceremony, won 5 gold medals and broke 4 games records. Fiji also took gold, silver and bronze in each of the men's and women's 100m and 200m and both gold and silver in the 400m. The football competition was one of the sports to be held in venues other than Suva. Fiji won the men's final beating New Caledonia while Papua New Guinea took the first-ever women's football gold medal in a round robin format. Continuing their domination at the games, Fiji won a further gold in the first-ever women's

competition at the SPG. The Pacific region-specific sports of

ing were contested between

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

and New Caledonia and

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and Tahiti surfed to gold at the

Tavarua Tavarua is an island resort in Fiji. It has an area of . It is close to the main Fijian island, Viti Levu, and is surrounded by a coral reef. It is also known to be shaped, somewhat, like a heart. Background The resort has surfing, sport fish ...

breaks Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to: Time off from duties * Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties * Break (work), time off during a shift/recess ** Coffee break, a short mid-morning rest ...

Medal table

New Caledonia topped the medal count.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* * * {{Pacific Games Pacific Games by year S

South Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games wer ...

International sports competitions hosted by Fiji Sport in Suva June 2003 sports events in Oceania July 2003 sports events in Oceania