9 January 2008 - Olympics: 3 places for Australia and 1 for Samoa!

Olympics: 3 places for Australia and 1 for Samoa! Lausanne - 9 January 2008 Jane Waller (AUS), 2006 Junior World Champion in Mexico    Without too many surprises Australia obtained 2 places for the Women’s competition in Beijing and one place for the Men’s competition at the Continental Qualifier Tournament for Oceania held in New Zealand this week. The surprise came from Samoa who obtained the final spot! It will be the first time that Samoa will be represented at the Olympic Games in Archery.   Women Recurve The two Australian women, Jade Lindsay and Jane Waller (Cadet World Champion in 2006) secured the spots for the Games. The other competitors were from Fiji and Samoa. Jane Waller is a promising talent. Although she is still a junior, she is currently ranked 59th in the world.      Joseph Walter (SAM) Men Recurve The Men’s competition gave a third place to Australia who previously earned two at the World Championships in Leipzig (GER) last year. Now Australia will be able to compete as a team for the Beijing Games. This place was obtained by Michael Narray who was 17th in the Beijing Test event. The 2nd place went to Joseph Walter from Samoa. Other participants were from Tonga and Fiji.   Walter finished 3rd in the South Pacific Games last year. Although he has not yet obtained officially the Minimum Qualification Score, the difficult weather conditions during the tournament in New Zealand did not help him. Walter has until July to obtain either 1200 points during a FITA Round or 600 points during a 70m Round. The Samoa team is actually confident that Walter will surpass these barriers and he most likely will be able to count on some very high level supporters in Beijing.   Prime Minister of Samoa, Mr Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi    The Prime Minister of Samoa, Mr Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi, is an archer himself and also was a medallist at the South Pacific Games in 2007. It is likely that he will come and encourage Joseph on site in Beijing. Samoa is one of the youngest FITA members and showing that the development work done by OAC and FITA, in cooperation and co-financed by ONOC and Olympic Solidarity is starting to show great results!   FITA Communication