Duo miss out Games over citizenship

TEAM PNG basketballers Christian Pang (men) and Peninnah Javapro (women) will not feature at the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, after they were unable to sort out their dual citizenships.
Basketball (5×5) was among 11 other sports that kicked off proceedings on day one yesterday.
The Australian-based duo were ruled out yesterday under Fiba Oceania guidelines. Pang, the younger brother of Papua New Guinea mixed martial artist Adrian, is in Apia with Team PNG and Javapro is in Australia.
This is the second time that Javapro, from East New Britain, East Sepik and Morobe, had missed out on representing the country.
This is Pang’s first attempt at representing the country.
But an optimistic Pang said from Apia that he still had the opportunity to represent the country in the future.
“There is always next time and hopefully, it will be at the 2023 Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands,” he said.
“I thanked all the people who have worked tirelessly to help me to try to get my dual citizenship sorted out on time.”