Ipatas Cup to kick off in January: Lepa

Sports

IPATAS Cup chief executive officer Timothy Lepa disclosed that the draw for the annual Coca-Cola-sponsored tournament will be released this month.
Lepa said defending champions Paga Panthers would also hand the trophy back to the CCIC organisers on the same day the draw was released in Port Moresby.
“We’ve agreed to run the 2018 Ipatas Cup challenge starting January next year,” Lepa said. “We’re looking to add a new leg to the challenge in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville next year which will cater for all sides from that part of the country.
“East Sepik hosted a successful CCIC tournament last year and now we are looking forward to combine West and East Sepik to run the competition in Wewak again.
“All these legs including Southern region, NCD, Highlands, that covers Enga, Jiwaka, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands and Southern Highlands and Morobe will have eight teams taking part in the tournament,” Lepa said.
He said Kainaintu District in Eastern Highlands would have its own leg to cover teams from Aiyura, Markam in Morobe, Ramu in Madang and Kainaintu itself.