Athletics competition gets underway at the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara this week. Athletes from around the Pacific arrived in the Solomon Islands capital over the past two days in preparation for their track and field events. The National Stadium will be the centre of activities, as competition rolls off at 3pm New Zealand time. Events that are scheduled for Monday includes the women's heptathlon, men's decathlon, 100 metres heats and the 5,000m on home soil. Fijian sprinter Banuve Tabakaucoro is missing from the Games after he retired early this year, having dominated the 100 and 200 metres in the past three editions of the Games. Fiji has a number of athletes they are hoping will continue the dominance, both in the men's and women's sprint events. Netball will also feature some good battles with Netball World Cup debutants Tonga, who has won both Oceania titles in 2022 and 2023, looking good to stake their claim for the gold medal in Honiara. Tonga Netball president Salote Sisifa said the Tala are looking forward to the challenge, having won silver at the 2019 Games in Apia. Cook Islands are the defending netball champions with Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa all in the gunning for the top spot. Tonga meet Niue in their opening game at the Friendship Hall. Bodybuilding, touch rugby, va'a, kayak, sailing and tennis also will see competition on Monday. Attention will also be on the events at the Lawson Tama Stadium in football. The semi-finals in the women's competition will see PNG will take on Samoa while Fiji battles New Caledonia. In the men's competition at the SIFF Academy, Monday's matches will determine who gets into the semi-finals. American Samoa face Northern Mariana Islands, Tonga will take on Tuvalu and Samoa meets Tahiti. Hosts happy with Games so far Meanwhile, the Games Organising Committee (GOC) chief executive has described the first week of events at the Pacific Games as "good". "So far, so good!" Peter Stewart told the Games media team. A record 4,963 athletes and officials from the 24 participating Pacific Island countries and territories are in Honiara. Since the opening ceremony, a total of 522 medals have been presented to gold, silver and bronze medal winners in 13 sports; archery, golf, judo, karate, rugby league 9s, rugby union 7s, swimming, sailing, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and weightlifting, the Pacific Games media said. "It has been so pleasing to see how enthusiastically Honiara has embraced the Games. "From the sellout opening ceremony to the loud cheering crowds at many venues, there has been nothing but smiling faces and warm support for all our visiting athletes." With week two, new groups of athletes have arrived with others who have finished their competition returning to their various homes. "Athletes and teams who have completed their events are travelling back this week, whilst others competing this week have already started arriving this weekend. "Those that remain will be part of the closing ceremony when the Games finish on Saturday, 2 December," Stewart said. Source: rnz.com