On Tuesday, September 27th, Oceania President Tarkong met with FILA President Raphael Martinetti during the 2005 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary to discuss some of the concerns that FILA had with Oceania's development. Tarkong briefed Martinetti on some recent developments that took place over the years and informed him that among some of the countries present at the Championships were American Samoa with 1 wrestler competing in Greco; Australia with 2 wrestlers, New Zealand with 1 female wrestler and of course, Palau with 1 wrestler competing in both freestyle and greco-roman. Martinetti mentioned that FILA is willing to help the Oceania region but the countries must seek assistance and requests through their NOC's which gets lots of funding from the IOC for many programs. Also, FILA would like to see the Oceania grow in membership by having more pacific island countries.
Martinetti was hoping that many of the countries in the Oceania would have taken advantage of the opportunity of having at least 1 wrestler coming to compete at the World Championships. Tarkong thanked FILA for their assistance but mentioned that some of the countries such as Samoa is making a comeback after wrestling ceased in their country in 2000 and Samoa has expressed their commitment to attend the 2006 and all future Oceania competitions and possibly the Word Championships next year. Tarkong informed Martinetti that the 2006 Oceania will be in Australia and we hope to have a higher level of competition with more participants.
Tarkong thanked FILA for their valuable assistance over the years and asked that they continue to help and provide additional support to include mats, coaching, training and other assistance since many of the countries are still at the beginning stages of developing wrestling in the region.
Last Modified on 26/01/2006 22:40