Football body praised

HONIARA: The outgoing president of the Solomon Islands Football Federation (Siff) Willie Lai has acknowledged Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, as the national leader whose stewardship saw football reaching new heights, giving hope for aspiring Solomon Islands athletes.
Speaking during the recent Siff congress, Lai stressed, many leaders have come and gone but have turned a blind eye on the development of sports let alone the Siff Academy.
He said, it took Sogavare’s visionary leadership to drive support and seek assistance for the construction of the home of Solomon football at the Siff Academy.
As his term as Siff president ended, Lai said the Sogavare-led government, its partners and Fifa did a great job for the future of football in this country.
“The newly built Siff Academy is one of the best in the region. With infrastructure support from the national government, the future of football in Solomon Islands is bright,” said outgoing president Lai.
“Sogavare has in many of his public statements described the Siff Academy project as a ‘national treasure’ and a step towards unifying our people through sports.
“The Games will be bring out the best for football moving forward.”
The 73 million project is funded by the governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Japan as part of the Pacific Games 2023 Sports precinct and home of Solomon football.
The football academy now nearing completion will comprise two Fifa compliant football pitches, a beach court, a futsal court, one two-storey administration building, and one two-storey dormitory accommodation building together with associated services to ensure Siff’s long-term legacy after the 2023 Pacific Games. – SI Times

Vanuatu backs 3×3 basketball

PORT Vila: The Vanuatu Basketball Federation (VBF) believes that the 3×3 competition is the way forward to promote elite basketball players on the regional and international stage.
3×3 competition is fast and exciting and is open to all. Its speed and smaller sides mean it guarantees more touches and more chances to score which makes it a great training and development opportunity for 5 on 5 basketball.
According to the federation president, Brenan Karae, one of VBF’s broad plans towards the end of the year is to promote 3×3 competition in the country.
“We have heard interested participants coming forward to compete at the stage and are excited about the next event,” said the VBF President.
“A good thing about 3×3 event is that once you participate in the event, once registered, your profile is monitored on the international stage.
“Currently, a lot of countries around the globe have fewer opportunities to make it into the NBA or at the world-class standard, 3×3 is the path to play anywhere in the world.
“We would like to see 3×3 more at the regional level like in the Pacific Games so that promote more competition in the smaller Oceania nations.” – Daily Post Vanuatu

SI Karate team in New Zealand for Oceania c’ship

HONIARA: Solomon Islands’ Karate’ team are in New Zealand for the Senior Oceania Karate Championships at Christchurch.
The 12-member team were in training camp on the Gold Coast in Australia last week before arriving for the championships.
Solomon Islands Karate Federation (Sikf) head coach Ronnie Uate’e when speaking to Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport (Sinis) media thanked the government and the High Performance centre for supporting such opportunity, as he said such exposure will boost his athletes for future tournaments.
“It is a first time for them too to be travelling to this kind of tournament, so we’re looking forward to competition ahead,” said Uate’e.
“With the mentoring assistance in Australia we hope to achieve some good results in New Zealand.
“We will be at New Zealand for some seminars as well with a qualified coach from Italy, so this will be very good for our athletes towards their preparations for the upcoming Pacific Games.”
– Sinis Media

5 Tongans in Oceania women’s side

NUKUALOFA: Five Tongan women rugby players are among 20 women from Papua New Guinea and Samoa who will compete in the second Oceania Rugby Women’s Combine in Fiji, from Aug 21-26.
They will have a chance of scoring nine scholarships to join Australian Super Rugby Women’s clubs during the 2024 season.
This was after, they were selected in May during the Oceania Women’s Championship at Bond University on the Gold Coast.
Oceania Rugby’s general Manager Frank Puletua said Oceania continues to produce some of the most gifted athletes in the world.
After last year’s Women’s Combine competition, seven players and a coach were offered placements with teams in Australia this year.
“We continue to look forward to seeing the women thrive, grow as players and as leaders, and be welcomed and embraced in Australia,” said Puletua.
World Rugby Women’s High Performance manager, Nicky Ponsford said this high-performance training environment, and elite level competition will accelerate player development.
“It will help drive the competitiveness of national teams like Samoa, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea.” – Matangi Tonga

Cook Islands to have strong squad for Games

RAROTONGA: Cook Islands Netball named a strong squad as it prepares for the Pacific Games later this year and looks to the future.
Team manager Tekura Moeka’a told RNZ Pacific from Rarotonga the squad for upcoming warm-up tournaments contained a good mix of overseas-based and local players.
“From a management perspective, we are confident in the squad’s abilities and excited about the squad we have selected,” she said.
“We are on the road to rebuilding and regenerating Netball Cook Islands and believe the combination of experienced players, new talents, and the support structure in place is a starting point.
“We have a mix of local-based players and overseas-based players. Local-based players are players who reside in the Cook Islands. They have been an integral part of our team and contribute to the development of netball in the country.”
There are currently 14 local-based players in the wider squad.
Tekura and her twin sister Rima Moeka’a are working with those players on their training programmes.
The overseas-based players – based in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand, and Sydney and Brisbane in Australia – are being monitored by head coach Joy Bates, who is based in Wellington.
Tekura said these players bring valuable experience from competing in higher-level leagues.
“We have a mix of both experienced and new talent with some making their debut being named in the wider squad or at national level for the first time,” Tekura said.
“We have 10 players with previous experience at the international level representing the Cook Islands, and their experience will play a key role in guiding and mentoring our younger talents.”
The Cook Islands is looking at attending the Nations Cup in Singapore in September and running a Tri-Series tournament in Rarotonga. – RNZ Pacific