24 teams battle for spots in Ipatas Cup

 TWENTY-four teams from six district in Chimbu will be competing in the three-day tournament to qualify for this year’s Coca-Cola Ipatas Cup.

Ipatas Cup coordinator Thomas Daugl said yesterday that the competition would kick off today at the Dickson oval.

He said the teams were slotted into six pools and would play in a round-robin format competition.

The winners in the six pools will play next week on a date yet to be set by the chief executive officer Timothy Lepa.

The top three teams, who qualify will represent the province, to play in the semi-finals against teams from other centres who have already qualified.

A team will play three games each with the best teams making it into finals in their respective pools.

He said teams will be coming from Gumine, Karamui, Chuave and Gembogl, who made their way to Kundiawa yesterday.

He added that the teams went into camp 10 weeks ago to prepare for the games.

Daugl said Correctional Services officers, Maima Kawage and Bal Michael from Barawagi Jail, and Kundiawa rugby league chairman Timothy Sivia, have been helping to prepare the field for the event.  

He is urging fans and supporters to come along and give their teams morale support.

He said last year, Gumine Pythons made it to the semi-finals and bowed out of the race but he was confident that one of the teams would make it to grand final, win the cup and prizemoney.