AMOA PNG READY TO FLY

PAPUA New Guinea Volleyball teams are set to fly in the 2013 Mini Pacific Games with the launching of their new name last Wednesday.

The national volleyball teams will now be known as AMOA PNG.

The Wednesday event had exhibition matches by junior players from associations in Port Moresby, as well as the national teams. 

Photo: This group is made up of the country’s top volleyballers who will represent PNG in the Wallis and Futuna IX Mini Pacific Games next month. Amoa PNG team members know a little bit more than just playing volleyball, as seen here where they were singing a song during the Team PNG bonding workshop held on Sunday (August 18). The songs, war cries and items presented there will be used at the Mini Games where the PNG athletes would perform for athletes and officials from other Pacific Island nations and territories. Amoa PNG performers pictured are led by Tatana lass Hitolo Raka on the guitar. – Picture by PNGOC MEDIA UNIT  

“Amoa means eagle in the local languages around the Hula area of Central and surrounding areas along the Aroma Coast,” PNG women’s indoor volleyball coach John Kombeng said last Thursday.

“Most other sporting codes have names, such as the Kumuls for rugby league, Pukpuks for rugby union, Pepes for netball and Barramundis for cricket. At the national level, we thought it was appropriate for us to have a name like the teams from other codes.”

Kombeng said they considered using the Tok Pisin equivalent of tarangau or manigulai from the New Guinea Islands region but those were too long.

“Amoa is short and suitable,” Kombeng said.

Kombeng, who designed the logo for team volleyball, said the character of the eagle was what they wanted to instil in the players in the Mini Games and beyond.

“The eagle glides high above and then dives down to pounce on its prey,” he said. “We want the players to learn from the bird – to predict the path of the ball even before it is hit and to attack like the eagle. That ability is valuable.”

Kombeng is quite confident the women’s team will do well in the Wallis and Futuna Games and beyond.

The volleyball teams have been building up for the Mini Games, ending a week-long training camp last month with the former Australian representative player Aaron Alsop from the Gold Coast Academy.

The teams will travel to Gold Coast, Australia, on Aug 22 for matches there and make use of world class facilities there.

They will return on Aug 28 and fly out for Wallis and Futuna on Aug 31.     

- From PNGOC Media Unit

FIVE OFF TO TRAIN IN US

By HENRY MORABANG

FIVE of the nine members of the Papua New Guinea Athletics Union left yesterday for the United States of America under the Oceania Athletics scholarship.

They are Rellie Kaputin, Joe Matmat, Freddy Hongowori, Adrine Monagi, Veherney Babob.

Photo:  Rellie Kaputin (left), Joe Matmat, Freddy Hongowori, Adrine Monagi and Veherney Babob at the Jackson International Airport before their flight to the US. – Nationalpic by JACK AMI

The athletes will join three others who arrived in the US on Monday.

PNG Athletics Union president Tony Green confirmed from Iowa that the three athletes had arrived on Monday night.

Two elite athletes – Toea Wisil and Mowen Boino – took part in the World Championship as their last competition before the Pacific Mini Games.

Sprint queen Wisil ran a good time of 11.61s in the 100m heats but that was not enough to get her through to the semi-final.

Mowen ran an excellent 400m hurdles time of 51.49s in only his second race of the year.

He ran 51.97s in Tahiti in June to win the Oceania area title but being based in Vanuatu he has had no competition opportunities since then. “His performance is very good considering this,” Green said.

- From The National, August 21, 2013

CHALLENGE FOR ATHLETES

ATHLETES preparing to represent the country in the 2013 IX Mini Pacific Games in Wallis and Futuna next month have been told they are ambassadors.

Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games organising committee chairwoman Emma Waiwai opened the Team PNG bonding workshop on Sunday in Port Moresby by reminding the athletes and officials they were ambassadors of Papua New Guinea at the Mini Games.

“Congratulations on being selected to represent PNG. You are ambassadors and representing your country,” she said.

Waiwai urged the athletes to do their very best and use the opportunity to build for the 2015 Pacific Games to be staged in Port Moresby. 

Photo: A few of the PNG Va’a (Canoeing) team performing a song during Team PNG team bonding workshop on Sunday (August 18). They are led by guitarists Vavine Guria (left) and Ailima Kini in the presence of Rugby 7s team manager Michael Bai (right) and General Team Manager John Susuve. During team bonding, each of the eight sports participating in the 2013 IX Mini Pacific Games to be staged in Wallis and Futuna sang a song and some presented war cries that Team PNG could use at the Games. – Picture by PNGOC MEDIA UNIT  

Team PNG chef de mission Richard Kassman congratulated the athletes for making it this far but said that taking part in the Games was serious business.

“You are members of an elite group, a few among the millions in our country who are privileged and will wear the national colours during an international event,” Kassman said.  “The hard long road has only begun. Take the Mini Games seriously. It is a serious competition. And today our competition starts.”

To emphasise the privilege of representing the country, Kassman reminded athletes they were representing a great country.

General team manager John Susuve said he wanted nothing but a positive attitude from all athletes during the Wallis and Futuna Mini Games from Sept 2-12. 

Susuve said many athletes had hit brick walls but the bonding session opened up their minds with the reminder they were not individual sport representatives but were members of Team PNG and were representing their country.

During the team bonding workshop, athletes were told about doping test procedures, code of conduct rules, basic information about Wallis and Futuna and the languages used there.

The teams presented songs and war cries that could be used in Wallis and Futuna.

- From PNGOC Media Unit

YOUNG PNG HURDLER CONFIDENT OF DOING WELL

A YOUNG hurdler is confident of doing well in the 2013 Mini Pacific Games to be held in Wallis and Futuna next month.

During training on Tuesday with the National Capital District team preparing for the Southern Region Athletics Championship to be held next week, Manuai Kenas said he was confident of doing well knowing that he won gold in last year’s PNG Games in the 400m hurdles and took out the first place in this year’s National Athletics Championships last month.

Kenas and Freddie Hongoworie are two athletes from NCD preparing for the Mini Games.  

Other athletes of the 38-member team representing PNG are training in Lae, Kokopo and overseas.

Kenas is aware he will be competing against senior hurdler and Pacific Games and Oceania champion Mowen Boino but he said he would still give his best. 

Photo: 400m hurdler Manuai Kenas (left) and fellow NCD athlete Elias Larry during training in Port Moresby on Tuesday. They are preparing for the Southern Region Athletics Championship to be held next week. – Picture by PNG OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MEDIA UNIT

To win the top prize in the 400m hurdles, Kenas, who was the fastest child in his class and school in primary school, had to listen to his coaches to concentrate on the 400m hurdles.

“I was fast in school but to compete against top national athletes, I had to listen and make changes,” Kenas said.

NCD athletics coach Naomi Polum said Kenas had progressed in a big way.

“We introduced him to the 400m hurdles just before the PNG Games last year and he has performed very well with a huge personal best – that is electronically timed,” Polum said. 

Of mixed Manus and New Ireland parentage, Kenas was in Grade 9 when he took part in the 2009 PNG Games where he came third in the 200m Open B Division, with Paul Pokana, a friend, winning the event.

“After the 2009 Games, I lost interest but was encouraged by Pokana to come back and train,” he said.

“During an athletics clinic, I learned that I could do better if I focused on the 400m hurdles.”

He said he made the change and that paid off.

Kenas was a member of the NCD 4x400m relay team that won gold in the 2011 Arafura Games.

He is positive and looks forward to the Wallis and Futuna Games knowing that he is well supported by his parents, team mates and coaches. 

- News item, August 16, 2013