Suspended Lepa M.P. and former prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is yet to decide if he will represent Samoa in archery in this year's XVII Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands.

The veteran politician has not thrown in the towel on his favourite sport which he last represented on the international scene for Samoa at the 2019 Pacific Games. Recently, he has expressed concern at the use of the archery field in Faleata by another sporting code for their training.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Tuilaepa expressed his disappointment at the Samoa Sports Facility Authority (S.S.F.A.) which manages State-owned sports facilities for agreeing to let another code use the archery sport's official grounds. 

"I'm still part of our team and training but I haven't finalised my decision yet. If and when the time comes and I think of competing then I will as a participant but I am still practising," the Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) leader said. "The team is still good as before but we're a bit struggling because some people whose sports are not that recognised came and took over our field where we use to train.

"This field is used specifically for archery but the touch rugby hasn't earned a recognition nor a medal for Samoa. It's making our practice challenging. We only have two days to train now and it's not enough because our team is improving a lot. Our team was champions in 2007 and 2019.

"Samoa hosted the Pacific Games three times and then the 2019 Commonwealth Youth Games that's why when we opted the host the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2019 when Tonga cancelled their hosting of the Games. This sports field was specially made for archery because it has an outdoor field and an indoor practice which allows us to practice even on rainy days.

"We're also liaising with the owner of the sports facility to give the whole field to us (archery team) as it used to when preparing for the previous Pacific Games and Commonwealth Games. We have claimed way more gold and silver medals than touch rugby.

"It's concerning that we only have two days of training per week so we're still fighting with the sports facility management to give us back the whole field for six days a week so we can have enough practice."

Tuilaepa also emphasised that Samoa's archers need this particular sports field because of the 100-yard section of the sport, saying: "The arrows are 30 to 100 yards and this is also the team that' training for the Olympics."

According to Tuilaepa, the tag rugby team started taking over the field last year and this year, where they have the field for their training four days a week allowing them only two days a week.

Samoa Observer attempted to get a comment from S.S.F.A. on Monday but an officer who answered the phone call said the president was on sick leave and the acting president will respond when he gets back to the office. The Acting S.S.F.A. president did not respond as of press time.

When the former prime minister took up his bow at the 2019 Pacific Games, he was one of the oldest members of Samoa's archery team, with his participation getting a lot of press coverage by visiting regional media. 

Tuilaepa said although archery isn't a traditional sport, Samoa has been blessed to win a gold medal at the time and he is optimistic about Samoa winning more gold medals through archery in the future.

The 2023 Pacific Games, officially known as the XVII Pacific Games, will be a continental multi-sport event for Oceania countries and territories and is scheduled to be held in Honiara, Solomon Islands between 19 November and 2 December 2023.