Badminton makes inroads into ENB

By ISAAC LIRI
BEING a sport in its infancy stage in Papua New Guinea, Badminton PNGs’ vision is to expand to all four regions of the country says president Kinivanagi Karo.
Badminton through its shuttle time programme has been carried out successfully in the National Capital District over the last two years and last week the sport achieved a milestone in branching out to the East New Britain.
The Special Olympics PNG (SOPNG) has partnered with Badminton PNG to conduct the shuttle time teacher training.
Karo said the introduction of the Shuttle time programme in East New Britain has excited people from as far as Rabaul and surrounding areas which has encouraged Badminton PNG to expand its coverage to introduce more programmes in that region before venturing to the Mamose and Highlands regions.
“What was carried out in East New Britain was for teachers or coaches to learn about badminton so they can run the shuttle time programme and later competitions,” Karo said.
The Badminton World Federation shuttle time teacher’s training component is sponsored by the Pacific Sports Partnership (PSP) programme.
Special Olympics PNG through the support of Lions Club International and Digicel PNG, funded the three-day programme to cater for people with disabilities, able bodied participants and volunteers.
Both SOPNG programme and the shuttle time teacher training programme ran concurrently to cater for the different participants.
More than 70 participants from different parts of ENB attended the programme including 15 new shuttle time teachers/coaches who will later conduct their own shuttle time programme soon.
Two BWF shuttle time kits were handed to Bennie Moi, who is the president of East New Britain Special Olympics.
Other parts of East New Britain are also interested in introducing the sport in the near future so there is opportunity to return and run another training programme with more equipment to distribute.
“Apart from seeing shuttle time enter the New Guinea Islands region, we want to see the sport expand to Lae and then to Goroka.
“The programme has a smartphone application which makes it easy for teachers to introduce and promote the sport,” Moi said.