Vanuatu athletes see snow for the first time !

COMMONWEALTH Games athletes from the sun-drenched South Pacific island of Vanuatu experienced snow for the first time yesterday.

After competing in judo and table tennis, the 11 members of the team were desperate to go sledging when they heard about Scotland’s indoor snow mountain, Snow Factor at Braehead, near Glasgow.

Although none of Vanuatu’s athletes won a medal at the Games, three of the team made up for that by winning a sledging race on snow slopes.

Team flag-bearer Yoshu Shing, 22, took gold in the race down the snow mountain and 16-year-old twins Rosanna and Roanna Abel won silver and bronze.

Yoshu said: “We’ve never seen snow before because it never gets that cold in Vanuatu, so we were really excited to get the chance to play around on some.

“I might not have won a medal at the Commonwealth Games but winning gold at the sledging makes up for that.

“We’ve already had a great time while we have been in Glasgow and this will be yet another brilliant memory to take home with us.” Jamie Smith, owner of Snow Factor, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Team Vanuatu to Snow Factor and help them celebrate the end of their Games experience with a visit to our real snow slopes.”

Vanuatu is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, 1090 miles east of northern Australia, west of Fiji and south-east of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.

There has been no snow on the island in living memory.