Badminton eyes Games debut

By ISAAC LIRI
THE Papua New Guinea Badminton Federation while in its infancy plans to take part at next year’s Pacific Games.
In the recent Olympic Day celebrations in Port Moresby hosted by the PNG Olympic Committee, PNG Badminton president Kinivanagi Karo spoke of their lead up activities to the Games in Samoa.
“Badminton is going to be part of the Games next year and we will put up the first ever badminton team to represent the country at the games,” Karo said.
The Badminton fraternity in Port Moresby runs competition’s every Sunday at the Rita Flynn Complex and Karo and his committee are looking at talented and committed athletes in the sport to develop.
“The great thing about this sport is that anybody can play it and age does not matter but what we want to see is committed athletes who show enthusiasm.
“We are working closely with the High Performance Sport PNG arm of the PNG Sports Foundation and they’ve been very helpful in our progress and plans to expand the sport in PNG and prepare for the Pacific Games as well.
“We also run a programme called ‘shuttle time’ at schools in NCD and Central and get more participation going so we can identify talent.”