West Papua to be considered in future Pacific Games

Sports

West Papua region of Indonesia is among territories and countries that could be included in future Pacific Games as the Pacific Games Council (PGC) continues to achieve inclusiveness through sports in the region.
The PGC’s forum held after its annual general meeting in Port Vila, Vanuatu, heard members speak out on several key topics such as associate membership, the bid process and the management structure.
The other names that were floated in general discussion that could be invited to become members of the regional games were Christmas Island, Bouganville, Easter Islands and Hawaii, apart from Australia and New Zealand.
These countries or territories could in future become associate members with certain voting rights.
A couple of countries were a bit wary of Australia and New Zealand becoming full members, as they could dominate the Pacific Games.
Australian Olympic Committee member Helen Brownlee said Australia was sensitive to the sentiments of the islands and would only enter sports where the islands were strong in such as weightlifting and rugby 7s.
“We will definitely be sending teams to the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia (Samoa) but it’ll depend on the individual federations,” she said.
“We have to go back to our sports for 2019. Athletics said no because standards are not high.
“This time we sent a development team.”
The forum also discussed its bid process and management structure regarding terms of office bearers.
President Vidya Lakhan told the forum that he had been in the job for too long now (over 10 years) but members said he was doing a good job.