Games planning begins

TEAM Papua New Guinea began its planning for the next four-year cycle of events with a Games planning workshop in Port Moresby on Saturday.
Hosted by the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee (PNGOC), its aim is to assist national federations to develop Games preparation plans for respective Games from 2021 to 2024.
This is the first time PNGOC is embarking on long-term planning with the federations.
The workshop assisted the federations to set goals for respective Games that they would be participating in as well as prioritising the Games on their calendars.
PNGOC president Sir John Dawanincura said planning was important in the success of any team or organisation.
“When you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” he said, emphasizing the need for team work within each federation and among different sports as well.
Over 80 representatives from the different sports who will be participating in the coming Games in this cycle attended the workshop.
They included athletes, coaches and executives. Also in attendance were representatives from High Performance Sport PNG and the PNG Athletes Commission.
PNGOC deputy secretary-general Andrew Lepani said this was the first workshop for the year and there was a possibility of having one or two more in 2020.
He said they were also working on developing a Team PNG Games strategy aiming for the major Games which include the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands in 2023 and the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
“At PNGOC, we continue to provide opportunities to assist our member national federations to build their capacity in administration and coaching, which in turn builds the capacity of their sport,” Lepani said.
“This leads to better and consistent performances on the world stage.”
This workshop was led by PNGOC performance coordinator Chris Amini who will continue to work with sports to finalise their plans and set their goals for each Games.
The workshop also provided a reflection on the Games evaluation workshop which was held in last September, where a review and evaluation of the Samoa Pacific Games was done.
The reason for that was to identify and understand the areas where Team PNG needed to improve on for the next Games.
One of the outcomes from that workshop was for athletes and teams to be better prepared by having a good plan in place. “We have identified the areas we need to improve on and we hope that you have reviewed your performances from 2019 as well and are already looking to adjust your goals and plans for this next quadrennial,” Lepani said.
PNGOC’s funding support to the federations has been strictly guided by the plans that they have in place and provide to the PNGOC.
This will continue with even more details required going forward which were discussed during the workshop.
The federations that do not have a plan will not get any funding support from PNGOC.
“Lack of planning will also indicate to PNGOC the commitment you have towards your sport and Team PNG,” Lepani said.
“Team PNG will be participating in respective Games every year and this is an opportunity for the federations to start planning.”
Sports had the opportunity to hear from International Olympic Committee-recognised sports expert and coach Dr Peter Davis who was impressed with the workshop.
He has been engaged by PNGOC through Olympic Solidarity funding to assist with the development of the Team PNG Games strategy.
Davis said it was good to see athletes, coaches and sports executives all attending the same planning workshop and learning together.