A race for warriors

On Saturday just gone, Samoa hosted our second International Half Ironman event. There were road closures around Apia in abundance. Traffic was at slow-motion throughout the day as triathletes and vehicles vied for limited space on Beach Road space.

In attendance were some of the world’s best elite tri-athletes who swam, biked and ran in the middle of Apia – yet there were no media there to report on the biggest story of the day.

The race was tough. There was the 2km swim, followed by a 90km bike ride to Le Mafa return. After all that there was the Half Marathon to be run.

Returning to defend his title was Kiwi Half Ironman champion Graham O’Grady. He was the favourite to win it. He did not. He was overcome by the heat in the first lap of the run course, and pulled out of the race. That was one dramatic twist to the Warrior race.

Next, Kerry Weeks, was also overcome by the heat. Two male pros down, five to go - another great story for the papers and radio news bulletins.

Another drama was developing. The first local athlete to finish was Darren Young. After he crossed the line, he staggered and almost fell several times from sheer exhaustion, before he was seated and cooled with ice and water by the amazing Red Cross staff. Despite being sick all week leading up to the race Darren completed the course in a personal best for him – he bettered his 2013 time by 18mins. That is a phenomenal result. Not only that, he was the fifth person to finish and the first of the non-pro athletes across the line. That was another noted event that should have and would have made headlines around the country, in any country around the world. It was not recorded here.

Still another drama had been unfolding throughout the day. Team Small was competing in the long event. The team, made up of the Small family – Mum and Dad Mark and Luisa Small with their 11-year old son Joshua, who was doing the 2km swim, were competing as a team.

Young Joshua got in the water and swam the 2km swim behind not only the professional athletes and also the Age Group field. Joshua finished the swim in the deep Apia Harbour, in good time and just in front of Elia Lasa. Another story that would make huge community headlines anywhere else in the developed world. Still more drama and success, our top swimmers, Brandon Schuster, Tehani Tamasese and Sitivi So’oa’emalelagi, swam with the Professional athletes and the

Age Group field, and came out third (Brandon), fifth (Tehani) and seventh (Sitivi).

Still more drama, Dr Malama Tafuna’i who has never completed a Half Ironman ever, did so on the weekend. It was pure hard work for Malama, but in the end she overcame the tough course that two pro-triathletes failed to conquer on Saturday. Malama was on the course for 7hrs 34mins 39secs. That was an amazing undertaking.

Malama’s swim time was 1hr 02mins, 30mins behind the first pro. Her bike time was 3hrs and 40mins, and she took close to 3hrs to complete the 21km Half Marathon run. That was pure heroine stuff – a drive of the will not to give up. This is what makes super-heroes, a story that should have been told through lenses, print, radio and television. It was not.

There was more newsworthy stuff – Saoluafata was the first Village team to compete in the International event albeit in the shorter distance. Saoluafata village won the teams’ event in Beat the Heat. All three members of the team were from the village and they were ecstatic to finish, and more, to win it for their village. That was another worthwhile story to be told. It was not.

If that was not enough, there were the social stories. The impact of the race on the town of Apia, and the closure of the central lanes of the town. That was another great story to be told. It was not. There were more stories, the ecstatic finish of the race, one after another of the athletes crossing in sheer exhaustion. Some like Darren Young, staggered and like a wounded animal after he was triumphant across the line. Such pure will to finish, a Warrior spirit, deserves those stories to be told. When young Sam Betten crossed the finish line in what was a course record raising and raising the finishing tape high above his head, triumphant in glory in front of our government building at Eleele fou, the story of the day for local news was not recorded.

Were was the Samoa media? In the biggest international sport to happen in Samoa this year, outside the two rugby internationals, the Samoa media was absent. There was not a single TV camera around, or a journalist that I recognised from mainstream media.

In countries overseas where such events are courted and bought for their tourism-generating potential the media would crawl all over each other for space at the Event sites to capture images, interviews and photo opportunities.

There were none present too, apart from the Samoa Observer, at the Grand Opening of the Event on Friday at the STA Fale with a keynote speech from the associate minister for Tourism,the Hon. Tafua Maluelue Tafua. That was despite various Media information and releases informing of event times and Race information.

To be fair to the Media, they did show in numbers for the Kids Triathlon during the week, on Wednesday last week. However, in the biggest international Sporting event to be held in Samoa outside the two rugby test matches this year, the

Samoa media contingent was totally missing in action from the event and failed to report to their audiences on the biggest Sporting news of the weekend.