Juggling babies, competition part of the job

– It’s not easy making history at the Commonwealth Games – and it doesn’t get any less complicated if you’re looking after a baby at the same time, as Vanuatu beach volleyball star Miller Pata (right) has found.

While most athletes have ice baths and massages after games, it’s more likely to be nappy changes and baby feeds for Pata, who nevertheless won bronze with Linline Matauatu on Thursday.

Pata hoisted seven-month-old Tommy in the air and placed her medal around his neck after the win over Cyprus which handed Vanuatu, a remote Pacific archi- pelago, its first ever Commonwealth Games medal.

The two haven’t had it easy: they have had to organise their own accommodation, babysitting, meals and physiotherapy, after being told Pata couldn’t stay with her baby at the athletes’ village.

Pata was back in training just two months after having Tommy, and she said one of the biggest challenges was eating properly to maintain her energy.

“My energy levels were different but I managed my food and everything,” the 29-year-old said.

Pata isn’t the only new mum here: two-time Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams had her first baby in October, and Australian race-walker Claire Tallent has an 11-month-old son.

Vanuatu coach Shanon Zunker said Pata had been “shortchanged” by being refused permission to stay in the village, which has physiotherapy and massage services and all dietary needs catered for.

“Given the stage they are on, I think it would be nice if they had access to that,” Zunker said.

Commonwealth Games Federation CEO David Grevemberg said children were allowed to visit the village and that there were facilities for baby-feeding.

“It’s certainly something we’ll continue to look at as far as making sure we have the right policies, but right now I think we have a fairly robust approach,” he told AFP.

Vanuatu is hardly known for its sporting prowess, but Pata and Matauatu have been rising up the beach volleyball ranks for some time.

They announced themselves as a credible force in 2015, with a win over world No 1 Brazil at a world tour event in the United States, and only narrowly failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. – AFP