Athletics clarify elite rule

ATHLETICS PNG issued a statement yesterday explaining the distinction between elite athletes and other national representatives.
President Tony Green said the rule on the participation on elite athletes had been explained and despite complaints of East New Britain’s use of several national representatives all had fallen within the PNG Games charter.
“The athletics competition was run in accordance with the Games charter which gives the responsibility to national federations to define the term ‘elite athlete’ as it applies to each sport and to decide to what extent those elite athletes may participate,” Green said.
He said Athletics PNG had fulfilled their obligations in this respect by seeking comments from their member associations and the PNG Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, and by seeking advice from Edris Kumbruwah in his capacity as technical adviser to the Games Council.
On Sept 3, Athletics PNG issued a press release naming the elite athletes and explaining why all other national athletes would be allowed to participate in the Games. 
According to Green, this information was also circulated widely.
He said the involvement of national representatives had its merits.
“Athletics PNG believes that it is in the national interest to improve the standard of the Games.
“We don’t want to spend our time and effort organising low quality competitions, nor do we want to see enormous sums of money being spent by provincial governments sending poor quality athletes to the PNG Games,” he said.
He said the money would have been better spent developing the sport in the provinces, then selecting and training their best to come to the PNG Games instead of “picking people at random at the last minute” which many provinces seemed to be doing. 
“This is a national event which everyone wants to be part of and it is wrong to deny athletes the opportunity to participate.”
Green said that as a result of the PNG Games and the strategy Athleteics PNG had adopted, they now had a big pool of athletes to work with as they begin preparations for the 2013 Mini Pacific Games.
“East New Britain came out on top in athletics because of the training and competition programmes that were based at Kokopo Secondary and Utmei Secondary schools and the Agmark Gurias gym. 
“Some of these athletes had more than 20 competitions throughout 2012 which brought them to a peak for the Games.
“John Rivan, Theo Piniau and Tuna Tine trained hard for the Games while studying for national exams,” Green said.
“They should be congratulated for their outstanding performances, as should coaches Subul Babo, Bernard Manau and Simon Benari for preparing the team so well.”