PNG Olympic Committee

Minister for Sports Justin Tkatchenko said they have planned a meeting with mediators and are waiting for confirmation from the World Rugby Union.

Tkatchenko urged both parties to come together to resolve the issue once and for all.

The mediators, two mediators will be from the PNG Olympic Committee while another will be from World Rugby Union.

Tkatchenko said they will come up with a sensible outcome that both parties can agree upon and then move on in the name of the game.

President of the PNGOC, Sir John Dawanincura encouraged all Papua New Guineans to be part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations by nominating a sports person or organization for one of the 11 categories available.

“Closing date for all nominations is April 3, 2017 and we want to see a flood of nominations from all over the country,” said Dawanincura,

Reflecting on the 25 years of the SP Sports Awards, he said the program has achieved its goals in giving importance to the achievements of athletes, officials, sports administrators and the media.

This was after a year of committed studies with the institution under a scholarship from the PNG Olympic Committee’s (PNGOC) Athletes Excellence Program.

Weightlifters Dika Toua, Lorraine Harry, Toua Udia and footballer, Abel Redenut, took time out from their sports to take up studies under the program, which is supported by the IBS.

The PNGOC established the program to cater for life after sport for the country’s elite sports men and women.

“We could not have done it without the support of all our partners, members and families. Our work involves working with different people and we’d like to thank all those who participated in our programs and campaigns throughout the year,” said Rapilla.

“I hope that we have inspired Papua New Guineans through the positive messages of our programs and the achievements of our own Team PNG athletes.”

The program is run through the Griffith University and supported by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

The program targets Oceania Commonwealth countries and has a high performance focus with the athlete and coach participants undergoing a series of generic and sports-specific sessions designed to improve their knowledge and practices on high performance areas such as health and training.

Seen as a trailblazer for the women of Papua New Guinea, Davani featured in the first ever Papua New Guinea women’s national team in 1988 and helped them to their first Pacific Games title in 2003. In 2016 she was appointed as chairperson of the Women’s National Soccer League.

She was also the first Papua New Guinean woman to become a judge.

OFC and PNGFA President David Chung said Justice Davani’s loss will be keenly felt by the football community both locally and regionally.

From the Team PNG president Sir John Dawanincura and officials the team extend their heartfelt condolences to her husband John, her sons Reginald, Peter, Cecil and Alexander, and her family and relatives at this most difficult of times. “We stand together with them in prayer”.

Team PNG salutes Justice Davani for being an outstanding Papua New Guinean both on and off the sports field.

 Her contributions to sport were as varied as they were immense, and spanned a period just shy of four decades.

Currently SOPNG is only established in the National Capital District, Central Province and Bougainville.

SOPNG president Takale Tuna says they’re slowly getting there in establishing programs in other provinces.

Tune said the support of PNG Sports Foundation has been great and SOPNG is actually piggy backing on their disability sports program.

He added that the volunteers are actually being trained by the PNG Olympic Committee and PNG Sports Foundation.

That is the word from President of the PNG National Olympic Committee, Sir John Dawanincura, who was in Lae over the weekend.

The events include the 10th Mini Pacific Games in Vanuatu in 2017, XXI Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, XVI Pacific Games in Tonga in 2019 and the XXXII Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Another significant event expected to see the country participate globally is the Olympic baton relay that passes through PNG as part of its Oceania leg in 2017, apart from the mini Pacific Games that same year.

PNGOC is taking the lead in promoting excellence for life after sport for the country’s elite sports men and women.

It has established a program to cater for this through its long term partnership with the Institute of Business Studies (IBS).

It is through this partnership that the Athlete Excellence Programme (AEP) was established for elite athletes.

The programme aims to offer elite PNG athletes the opportunity to obtain educational qualifications through the IBS Diploma and Certificate courses.