Arafura plan takes shape

By HENRY MORABANG
WITH less than nine months to go before the 12th Arafura Games in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, the Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation and its local Arafura Planning Committee (APC) will launch the 2013 Arafura Games Planning today at the Sports Foundation training room.
APC-PNG chairman Thomas Kahai said the Arafura Games would be held from May 11-18.
He said his committee wanted most national federations to use the Games as their Go for Gold Development programme, leading to the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.
Invitations will be sent to national federations and provincial teams.
All sports are asked to fill out expressions of interest to compete there.
Kahai said the meeting was for “team managements to get the information they needed from the planning committee for their preparations in the coming months.
Areas of concern for teams will be accommodation, airline travel, passports processing and confirmed team lists for accreditation.
Kahai said 16 able-bodied sports and a paralympian team would also accompany the contingent.
There will be 23 sports played at the 2013 Arafura Games and PNG will be offered to take part in 16. They are: Athletics, basketball, boxing, cricket, football, golf, hockey, rugby 7s, shooting – (clay target, IPSC, ISSF), squash, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, powerlifting (AWD) and Paralympics power-lifting and athletics.
Kahai said army and university teams could attend as well.
He said national teams did not have to have elite players and sports could send development teams and fringe athletes who needed the exposure.