Accreditation process concerns Games’ defending champions Team Morobe

Sports

By PISAI GUMAR
DEFENDING PNG Games champions Team Morobe have raised concern over the delay in the accreditation process.
Morobe sports advisor Nane Tomala raised the issue when learning from PNG Games sports director John Susuve that the accreditation process for athletes and provinces had not been completed with days to go before the opening ceremony on Saturday.
She said as defending champion, Team Morobe were concerned as they wanted to know how many provinces were taking part in each sport so they could prepare for it.
Tomala said they wanted to have information on each sport in order to plan their participation.
“At this stage we don’t know how many provinces are taking part in each sport because that information along with the confirmed numbers of participants are not available,” Tomala said.
Susuve agreed that Morobe’s concern was a valid one but he did not have the confirmed numbers as the process of accreditation was ongoing.
“Team Morobe’s concern is genuine because they are the defending champions and as such they will likely send a large contingent to Kimbe,” Susuve said.
The deadline for accreditation was Sept 30 but has been extended to this month.
“We are filtering the entry by sports and the confirmed list should be out by the end of the week, with 17 provinces confirmed but not accredited as yet.
“Western, Hela and New Ireland will not participate due to financial issues,” Susuve said.
He said the entries information from the provinces was slow and kept changing.
Susuve said that the Games council also had a huge task ahead to get the competition schedules ready but this could only be done after the final list of provinces and sports they were competing in was confirmed.