Great year for sports in PNG

By HENRY MORABANG
IT was a challenging but great year for sports in general for Papua New Guinea.
It was the best year yet for rugby league with PNG Hunters winning the Intrust Super Cup after four attempts, while the PNG Kumuls advanced into the quarter finals in 2017 Rugby League World Cup.
Other national sporting highlights include the Mosquitoes winning the AFL International Cup, cricket and rugby sevens qualifying for the next stages of their respective competitions and most recently Team PNG finishing second at the 10th Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
On the local front, West New Britain hosted the most successful PNG Games after starting from ground-zero, thanks to the hardworking Governor Sasidran Muthuvel and his local organising committee chairman Ruben Kautu.
Central led all the way, from the start to finish, to win the PNG Games ahead of favourites, NCD, Morobe and East New Britain.
The success story for sport this year was rugby. After surviving the political mud-slinging at the administrative level, rugby sevens went on to qualify for the next stage of men’s and women’s tournaments.
Coach Douglas Guise, the former PNG Pukpuks and Palais’ John Larry, were lost of words when they qualified for next stages of their respective competitions.
Both the Pukpuks and Palais qualified for the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7s after impressive performances at the Oceania Sevens Championships in Suva, Fiji in November. The Pukpuks finished fifth, while the Palais finished fourth in the women’s competition.
The Pukpuks also qualified for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, the HSBC Sevens World Series and for the Sevens Rugby World Cup. The women’s side, Palais also qualified for the HSBC Sydney Sevens and the Sevens Rugby World Cup to be played in San Francisco, United States next year. For the second year in a row both the men’s and women’s teams took the qualifying spots on the line at the 2017 Oceania Rugby Sevens Championships.
The PNG men’s team will now head to the 2017 Hamilton and Sydney 7’s as the 16th team before going to the 2019 HSBC Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong.
Following this they will join Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Samoa to represent the region at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April.
The PNG women secured a crucial placing in the semi-finals at the end of play on day one after finishing second in Pool A.
The team have been granted an invitation to the Sydney 7s on Jan 26-28 before heading to the 2019 HSBC Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong.
To add to the celebrations, both teams also qualified for the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7’s in San Francisco in July.
Football (soccer) may have gone through one of its lowest periods over the last 12 months.
With allegations of unpaid bills amounting to millions of kina from 2016 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup and a split in the national body, PNG Football Association has much to explain to soccer followers.
The split has greatly affected the PNG Kapuls’s qualification process and they were kicked out of the campaign by Tahiti.
The biggest flop for football this year was the incomplete National Soccer League (NSL) season and the controversy surrounding the eligibility of Lae City Dwellers and Madang’s participation in 2018 OFC Championship League.
Not only that, the women lost their Pacific Games crown to Vanuatu as Papua New Guinea did not take part in the soccer competition at the Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila.
The second soccer body, Football Federation Papua New Guinea (FFPNG) is apparently on a roll bringing the game to the grassroots in both rural and urban areas. With its 2018 calendar already set, FFPNG president John Kapi Natto said they were ready to take the game to all four corners of the country.
Women’s favourite sport netball created history by winning the first gold medal at the Pacific Mini Games. PNG Pepes have been playing second fiddle to Samoa and Fiji but they proved that they can also win at this regional meet.
Basketball also had a successful season by hosting the Melanesian Cup which attracted Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Caledonia. PNG won both the men and women’s titles.
Vanuatu withdrew from the tournament to focus on the recent Pacific Mini Games.
In athletics, sprint queen Toea Wisil lost in the 200m sprint to her training partner from Cook Islands Patricia Taea. Wisil won the 100m earlier.
It was also busy year for athletics which gave the country great results at the Pacific Mini Games.
The highlight of cricket was the Hebou PNG Barramundis hosting Scotland in Port Moresby.
After a draw in the three-day match, the Barrumudi forced a draw with the visitors in the one-day series challenge.
Beach volleyball gold medal winning pair Richard Kila-Rupa and Moha Mea continued their good form to win gold medal in the Pacific Mini Games to keep the spirit of volleyball alive and well at the regional level.
Despite volleyball missing out on the Vanuatu Games, beach volleyball continued the legacy by winning the top medal.
In weightlifting, the triple gold medal trio from Hanubada village continued their good form at the Pacific Mini Games.
Steven Kari, Dika Toua and Baru Morea stunned the Pacific islanders at the Vanuatu Games.
The trio will now focus on the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast next April.
Coach Paul Coffa has predicted that Papua New Guinea would win three gold medals at the Games in Australia.
It was quite year for other sports such as boxing, softball, table tennis, tennis, touch football, hockey, bowling and swimming throughout the year.