Justification committee makes selections for Pacific Mini Games

Sports

With about 80 days to the opening ceremony of the 2017 Vanuatu Pacific Mini Games (Van2017), sports have been made aware of which athletes have been endorsed for Team PNG selection by the PNG Olympic Committee (PNGOC) justification committee (JC).
Sports in the Van2017 programme met with the justification committee on Aug 26 and 27 to justify why their nominated athletes deserve selection for Team PNG to the Dec 4-15 Pacific Mini Games.
After considering what was submitted by the sports prior to the meetings and what was presented in the meeting, and taking into account the selection standards outlined in the Team PNG selection policies, the committee deliberated and reached its decisions for each sport.
Athletes have been endorsed from athletics, beach volleyball, golf, karate, netball, table tennis, tennis and weightlifting.
Basketball 3 on 3, boxing and rugby 7s were given until after their respective selection events to provide names of their nominated athletes.
Three sports that would not have athletes competing in Van2017 are archery, football and judo. A submission from archery to consider their inclusion on Team PNG was not endorsed as it was felt there was not enough performance data to justify their athletes’ inclusion.
Although it has previously stated that football would not be sending either a women’s or men’s team to the Mini Games, PNG Football Association was given the opportunity to reconsider their decision and nominate athletes, however they decided not to do so.
Judo failed to submit the requested information and did not have a representative at the meeting with the justification committee and was dropped.