FIBA duo in country to support Games prep

Normal, Sports
Source:

The National, Monday 18th February, 2013

By JACK AMI
FIBA (Federation International Basketball Association) Oceania secretary-general Steve Smith and zone development manager Annie La Fleur arrived in Port Moresby on Saturday.
The FIBA Oceania officials are here to support the country’s preparations for the 2015 Pacific Games.
They were met by Papua New Guinea Basketball Federation president Nick Daroa, his deputy Emma Waiwai and national basketball development officer Ronnie Mea.
Daroa and his team welcomed their help to develop basketball in the country in preparation for Pacific Games as well as other important issues related to the sport.
Smith, who has visited the country four times, said they were here to help with technical expertise and infrastructural development and assessing  standards and requirements.
This is Smith’s fifth visit to PNG and the first for La Fleur, who is part Papua New Guinean (Lese Oala Gulf) and represented the Australian Opals in two World Championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
It was revealed that FIBA Oceania Pacific Youth championship 2014 expression of interest, which PNG bids for against Fiji, Tahiti and New Caledonia to host; will be good test for PNG’s facilities towards 2015 Pacific Games.
La Fleur recently joined the body as a zone development manager and they were confident of employing two national basketball development officers under FIBA Oceania and another possibly from the PNG Sports Federation.