Coco Talanoa — Sports / Page 42

Destanee Aiava is only 16 years old and shaping up to be the first Samoan Tennis Super star! Here are a few things that she’s aced already…

• February 2017 as in last week… Destanee won her first ITF women's title of her career, snatching the $25,000 prize in Perth by defeating Viktoria Kuzmova in the final, 6–1 6–1. Aiava stole the show! She served well, facing only one break point, and she broke her rival 5 times from 14 chances, more than enough for a nice and easy triumph and another milestone in her already incredible career.…more

Late last year Tasha Aiono entered the $50,000 1st Phorm Athlete search.

The 27 year old shares her story in this video here to help inspire others on their own fitness & sports journeys.

She attended BYU Hawaii and played 4 years of College Soccer as well as for the Women's Real Salt Lake Team and also played overseas in New Zealand for the Samoan Women's National Team in the South Pacific Games.  

Last year she started playing Womens football for the first time for the Utah Falconz.

Ardie & Julian Savea took off their rugby boots and picked up tennis rackets for a good cause at the ASB Classic yesterday.

They took on the Williams sisters - Venus and Serena - in a charity match which raised over $65k for the city of Kaikoura which had been badly damaged in an earthquake towards the end of last year.  

The boys also had help from another tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and at one point even Venus jumped sides against Serena.

Great day out and a chance to see tennis super stars in action! 

Check out some more of the highlights below ...

Suggested Links:

Julian & Ardie Savea - My World 

The 2016 Kalofae/Fail moments of the year 

This time last week the NRL Pacific Leadership Camp was in full swing with players identified by their clubs as being leaders or potential leaders in attendance.

Speakers included Dr Colin Tukuitonga, Frank Puletua, Nigel Vagana, Quentin Pongia with Tagata Pasifikas John Pulu on MC duties.

One of the key speakers at the camp was Digital Strategist Mahei Foliaki who spoke to the players about the platform they have as NRL players to be able to use their influence to help their community, their people and their family but making sure they were equipped with the right information and knowledge to be able to do this through Social Media.  

He encouraged them to educate themselves,  keep learning and to firstly have a strategy/plan and secondly the tactics to achieve their objectives.

Mahei stressed the importance of personal responsibility and how they're using these social media tools because it affects their brand.  He brought it closer to home by saying "Your surname!  Your surnames your brand ....…more

He has just made history by becoming the first Samoan to win the Heavyweight Championship of the world. We Catch up with Joseph Parker, straight after his hard fought win and he tells us all about taking the belt back home... to Samoa.

Before Joseph Parker, some other very powerful Samoans stepped in to the ring.

Jimmy Peau & David Tua to name a couple. Here's a little look at the carnage they caused, as they paved the way for Joseph Parker.

The Hawai'i State Championship final in November saw the Kahuku Red Raiders and the Saint Louis Crusaders meet again.

Saint Louis went on to win 30 - 14 to claim the Open State Football Title but what was interesting about this game besides the game was that the Kahuku Red Raiders were not allowed to perform the haka.

In 2010 a haka was composed for Kahuku's football team which became a tradition for the boys to perform at the beginning of their games (similar to the hakas performed in New Zealand and the South Pacific islands prior to rugby and rugby league games).

Last year the Kahuku Raiders were told that if they did the haka it would be considered "Unsportsmanlike" and they'd be given a 15 yard penalty.  They did it anyway and took the penalty.

THIS year, the team were told that any player performing the haka would be banned so the community got together - friends, family and fans - to help the team and THEY performed the haka in the stands for the boys.…more

Sevens From Heaven is the story of Fiji Rugby Sevens, the winners of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2015/16 and the team that inspired the world in Rio when they won Fiji's first ever Olympic medal, and a gold at that!

Discover how a tiny island nation with limited resources took on the world at Rugby Sevens and won. Go inside the team with never-before-seen footage to see what it took to take a team from an island in the South Pacific to becoming the best in the world.

Suggested Links:

Fiji 7s win Gold at the Olympics  

Na Qito Vakaviti - Traditional Games 

Credits:
Created by HSBC Sport in collaboration with Zoomfiji - https://www.facebook.com/1zoomfiji/
Produced by Hill + Knowlton Strategies
Music: Composed by Ross Budgen - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQKG...

*** COCO EXCLUSIVE ***

Every time Joseph Parker steps in the ring he wears a new pair of shorts but what you probably don't know is that he designs them himself!

He also buys all of the material, picks the colours and goes shopping for everything himself too.

For his upcoming WBO Heavyweight Championship fight, he took the Coconet along with him on one such shopping trip.

Suggested Links:

Joseph Parker - Our future Heavyweight Champion of the World 

Joseph Parker - My World