National softball championship to return in 2024

By JAMIE HARO
THE National Softball Championship will return this year in Port Moresby and is expected to unleash new local talents after a few years of hibernation.
PNG Baseball Softball Federation interim president Jenny Paak said they were planning to have the women’s national team return to regional tournaments since their gold medal performance at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby. “The interim executives are working together to put compliance back to the federation and ensure that we have a group of women athletes participating in the 2025 Mini Pacific Games in Palau,” Paak said.
“Since women’s softball was listed for these games, one of the compliance from PNG Olympic Committee was to have a championship so we have a selection criteria process to select the female athletes to participate.
“We’re looking at having the championships in September, it’s been a while for this to return especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Paak said they were hoping all active member associations would send teams for this championship to allow for fair selection before the Mini Pacific Games.
Meanwhile, the federation’s annual general meeting will coincide with the championship for all member associations to elect new executives. “The local competition (in Port Moresby) will run until September and we hope to see more supporters coming to support softball as the games pick up,” she said.
“At the moment we are reaching out to the associations to give them a calendar of activities that we plan to run between now and September so they get their associations in order and at least prepare their teams to compete in the championship.”