Boost for Team WHP

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
WESTERN Highlands sports council needs K700,000 to send 280  participants to the PNG Games in Kokopo, East New Britain in November.
Chairman of the Team Western Highlands Simon Kama, in a press conference on Friday, said preparations were well underway and they wre ready to give a good competition to other provinces.
Kama said their only problem were to do with the funding.
“We need K700,000 to bring the team down to Kokopo and come back,” he said.
He said letters were written to business houses seeking donations in kind and cash.
Kama said that so far only two business houses in the province, Brian Bell and Morobe Printers responded by donating some training gear.
“I hope that other business houses will respond to help send the team down,” he said.
He said the participants would compete in athletics, boxing, dart, netball, softball, touch footy, cricket, kickboxing, basketball, golf and taekwondo.
Kama said the participants were selected during last Independence Day provincial sports competition held in Mt Hagen.
He said the participants come from the four districts in the province.
Kama said that because of their poor performance in the last PNG Games held in Port Moresby in 2009 where Team Western Highlands finished 13th, they now prepare in advance to be on the top five.
He said they met all the requirements of the host committee headed by Sir Rabbie Namaliu.
He said all administrative work was done and sent to the organising committee. Kama thanked the National Government for allocating K200,000 to each province for the airfares of the participants and officials.
He also thanked Western Highlands provincial government for its continuous support in the past and hope this year would not be an exception.