District teams pushed back in restructure

By ROBINSON LEKA
DISTRICT representative teams will no longer be allowed to compete in the national netball championships following a restructure, according to an official.
Rigo Netball Association president and Netball Papua New Guinea executive Iammo Launa said the restructure would see only provincial sides competing in the championships.
She said for Central, each district was now tasked with hosting their own tournament to select a side to compete in the provincial tourney before the representative squad is picked.
“We will have our Rigo tournament in late June,” Launa told The National.
“It’s going to be different this year because Netball PNG has changed the competition structure with no district teams allowed to compete in the national championships.
“We used to attend the championships in our district teams in the past.
“But it has now changed to only provincial teams.”
Meanwhile, Launa said competitions in Rigo were running smoothly despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been having our competitions in the local-level government areas.
“Inland Rigo has completed its competition, so we’re now looking to host the Rigo coast competition next month.
“We’ve had villages like Kalo, Kamali and Makerupu have competitions and tournaments, which is a promising sign for the code in Rigo.
“Most villages were just restricted to having games in their own areas and we weren’t able to have a Rigo tournament.
“So villages were encouraged to run their own games.”