*Team Solomon Islands meet Queen Elizabeth II Glasgow 2014's first day of
competition was an excitement filled royal day, as members of the team met
the Queen of the Commonwealth. Everyone saw the Queen at the Opening
Ceremony the night before, which was enough of an honour for some members
of the team, to see the Queen with their own eyes, such as for Nathan
Thompson, Triathlon Coach: "She was far away, but I saw here. So when I go
back, I can tell everyone that I have seen the Queen". However, two members
of the team were lucky enough to have lunch with the Queen, and Chef de
Mission, Ronald Talasasa had the honour of speaking with the Queen.
Rosefelo Sisor and Sharon Firisua were the two athlete representatives for
the team at the lunch. Rosefelo was almost those lost for words when trying
to describe his lunch with the Queen. "I was very happy to meet the Queen.
I have dreamt about it and prayed about it, and today it came true. I was
privileged to meet her today when we went for lunch" Rosefelo explained. "I
was shocked when I got to meet her. I was so glad...I don't know how to
express it. Lost for words!" The Oceania contingent at the royal visit was
mainly made up of Athletes, and as a 5000m runner himself this pleased
Rosefelo, "The other countries had sprinters, runners...Oceania Athletics!
Yeah!!" Ronald was also highly honoured to have met the Queen, and in his
conversation with Her Majesty explained to her that he was "highly honoured
to meet you again, Your Majesty. I met you at the London Olympics, and I
love my Queen." He then described the rest of the conversation: "She asked
about Team Solomon, the size of the team, and wished the team the best of
luck." As Ronald comes from a netball background, he took the chance to
speak to some netball players, who joked about how long Ronald spoke to the
Queen: "They all said to me 'I saw you with the queen for a long time!' -
Everyone was saying that!" Ronald's conversation with the Queen stood out
so much that he was interviewed by the official press at the event. His
engaging interview made it into two national and one local news outlets:
ITV, The Telegraph and The Extra (A newspaper for Glasgow). Rosefelo is
now looking out to meet his next hero, Usain Bolt, while Ronald simply
reflected on his growing friendship with the Queen: "Twice in two years.
What an honour!"*
Last Modified on 28/07/2014 11:22