4,000 netballers expected at c’ship

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The National, Friday July 19th, 2013

 By KYMLIE KARANI

ONCE again the search for our country’s future netballers is on as the PNG Netball Federation yesterday announced the 2013 Digicel National Netball Championship.

PNG Netball president Julienne Leka-Maliaki said the Motu-Koita West Netball Association will host the 2013 Digicel National Netball Championship scheduled from Sept 23-29 in Port Moresby.

An estimated 5,000 players and officials are expected at the championship in the junior and senior divisions at the Rita Flynn Netball Courts. 

Players from the New Guinea Islands, Momase and Southern regions have the chance to be identified and selected for representative duties and all provinces are preparing their best teams for the event.

Maliaki  (pictured) stressed that the championship would be one of the biggest and important events as this championship would focus on talent identification for PNG Netball’s player pathway programme towards which extends to 2017.

According to PNG Netball, associations are gearing up for this event not only for the sake of participating but this time around young players will be vying for selection into PNG Netballs development teams for its international schedule over the next five years.

“The search for natural talent is on and we believe that this tournament presents an opportunity for potential players throughout the country to be identified by our selectors during this tournament,” Maliaki said.

The one-week event will also include a two-day coaching and umpiring workshop to be facilitated by accredited coaching/umpiring trainers from Sept 20-21.

The juniors (2,500) play from Sept 23-25 while the seniors (1,500) take to the court from Sept 27-29. 

An Annual General Meeting will also coincide with the championship on Sept 26, which will see the appointment of a new board for PNG Netball taking office in the first week of October.

All member associations are to contact Mona-lisa Leka and Caroline Genaia of PNG Netball to confirm their participation at this year’s national championships.