PAPUA New Guinea is spearheading moves to amend the current South Pacific Games eligibility rule which only allows citizen of competing island countries to participate at the Games.
PNG, through the support of other federations, is asking the Games Council to rule that the new charter which includes the new eligibility rule was not properly adopted in 2005.
PNG as a member of the Pacific Games Council charter review committee is lobbying for the return of previous eligibility rules and the scrapping of the current citizens-only rule. The PNG lobby is led by Sir John Dawanincura, the secretary general of PNG Sports Federation and National Olympic Committee.
The review committee, headed by chairman David Tupou of Tonga, met in Auckland, New Zealand, last weekend where the eligibility rules and other aspects of the charter were questioned and recommended for review.
Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association president Michael A. White said after the meeting that they will recommend the proposed changes to the Games executive board early next year in the Cook Islands capital, Rarotonga.
The charter review committee is proposing to return to the eligibility rule which was applicable before 2005 which allowed for non-citizens with residency status in member countries to represent their country of residence at the Games and Mini Games.
White said he expected a change. “I think this is what everybody wanted to do. The gates are clear for us to return to the old rule.”
The 21-member nation Pacific Games Council has met several times this year in Apia, Samoa, to discuss and review several proposed amendments of the eligibility rule.
PGC president Vidhya Lakan of Fiji created the CRC in order to study several recommendations for the eligibility ruling.
The Northern Marianas is one of the island nations that was affected by the new eligibility rule after it was unanimously passed during a PGC meeting in 2005. The Marianas have athletes who are non-U.S. citizens but are long-time residents or alien workers.
The Games Council’s change of heart is welcome news to tennis stars Kana Aikawa and Ji Hoon Heo, and the sixth Micronesian Games gold-medal winning table tennis team since they can now again compete in future Games.
Aikawa is a Japanese by birth but is a Canadian citizen who polished her tennis skills in the Marianas, while Heo, the current top junior player, is a Korean who also honed his skills on Saipan under the guidance of coach Jeff Race. The table tennis team, meanwhile, are mostly non-resident workers.
Aside from Tupou and White other CRC members are Tina Brown of the Cook Islands, Sir John Dawanincura of PNG and Charles Cali of New Caledonia.
Tupou, Brown, and White are known lawyers in their respective islands, while Cali is the president of New Caledonia's International Sports and Cultural Association or the Union Sportive de l'Enseignement du Premier degree.
The Northern Marianas through White is proposing an amendment of “grandfathering in” past athletes, who are not citizens of the country they are representing, that competed in previous Pacific Games.
The proposed amendment rule would allow former athletes, who are not citizens of the country they are representing, to play in future Games.