TAVA’ESINA Felt Cheated Out Of A Win

Written by Pio Sioa
Wednesday, 03 September 2008
VIDEO CHECK: Fautasi race committee go through a video replay of the finishing line. DIVINE INSPIRATION: It was a hard swallow but as the spiritual leader, Rev. Malulue Pone, tried to distract the attention of his TAVA'ESINA crew and supporters from dwelling on the loss. HERO FOR A MOMENT: Captain Pauli Ivan Williams on his way to a hero's welcome straight after the race, only to be told a few hours later that his boat was beaten on the line. A moment of triumph turned bitter and angry for the crew and the supporters of the TAVA’ESINA boat from Salua Manono when it turned out that it was the SEGAVAO II and not them that had won the battle royal on the Apia waterfront on Monday morning, The race committee ruled that the TAVA’ESINA, the defending champion from 2007 Teuila Festival, lost it on the line. There were suggestions as well they may have celebrated too early when they raised their oars and coasted to the line allowing for the charging SEGAVAO II to steal to the line first. But the captain of the TAVAESINA, Pauli Ivan Williams, rejected the committee’s ruling. “We were robbed,” he told Newsline. He left it however to the team’s spiritual leader, the Rev. Maluelue Pone, of the Salua EFKS, to react officially to the gut wrenching blow. “The morale in the whole crew and our camp is really down,” Rev. Pone admitted, as the anguish of the demoralizing turn of events was plain to see. He had arranged along with the captain to allow for the crew to play touch rugby at the Leifiifi grounds on Monday evening, to distract the painful outcome of the race from playing in their heads. “I believe we were hard done by the committee’s decision. We were back in camp celebrating our win when we learned through hearsay that the SEGAVAO II is the winner. “We searched around for official confirmation from the race committee but it was late in the afternoon when we were told about the outcome.” Rev. Pone criticized the race committee for their handling of the race result as very unprofessional. “We’ve seen the video of the race and the angle it was taken from and we are not convinced, we believe that we won the race.” The TAVA’ESINA’S spiritual leader was further disappointed by the way the committee went out and informed the SEGAVAO II about the outcome of the race and not them. “As our crew were rowing home they could see the SEGAVAO II guys jumping into the water to celebrate. “They were suspicious however when they saw at the same time a police officer who was also a race official, in a boat around where the SEGAVAO II was. “If he had told them about the outcome of the race and not us, then it was not a very professional way to handle the situation especially when we had to chase them around to find out. “This is a very difficult swallow for us but I guess we will just have to drink to it, we have suffered enough without being blamed for poor sportsmanship. ” The race committee’s official ruling sets the winning time for the SEGAVAO II at 39 minutes and 53 second, one second faster than the TAVA’ESINA. The two boats are lined up again for the Thursday race but with the advantage seemingly on the SEGAVAO II using the lighter scooped oars. Most of the 11 entries for tomorrow’s race are going with wooden oars including the TAVA’ESINA, because they do not have any. Captain Pauli Williams admitted that the advantage would be on the boats that will be aided by the new technology. “But hopefully we can get the same conditions we had today (Monday) on Thursday,” he said, while hopeful of a stiff head on breeze and churning water, whipped up by the wind. “With wooden oars we can be competitive in those conditions, the wind can be a factor on those scooped oars because they are wider and will catch a lot of breeze.” The starting line will need a lot of policing however with boats complaining about a poor start in the first race. A racing committee spokesman admitted however that the difficult conditions made it hard to control the boats as they line up for the start. Comments (3) Subscribe to this comment's feed Why was the winner changed written by Popo Uli, September 04, 2008 Word here in NZ from Samoa was that Tavaesina was ruled out as winner due to their raising of oars before reaching the finishing line. Now this story is saying it was changed because of video replays which saw Segavao crossing first. ... written by Osamaoan, September 04, 2008 Manono people are the biggest sore losers in the country. They LOST. Accept it and be humble about it. They were carrying on like this back in 2006 when Segavao won. They are so arrogant when it comes to fautasi racing. I am glad they LOST. They should accept it and pray to God to teach them humbleness in defeat. Just because they had the best navy in Samoan history, they think they own the seas still. vidoe replay written by CHRIS AH BEN, September 04, 2008 Can the committee show the public of this video replay so we all know and make our own judgement. I was at Apia seawall on monday morning watching the race. I think from what I saw Tavaesina is the winner. Manuia le Teuila everyone. Its only a game anyways Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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