Netball welcomes Newcrest’s K90,000 support for tourney

Netball Papua New Guinea has welcomed Newcrest Mining Limited’s sponsorship of K90,000 towards the annual National Netball Championships to be held in Lae, Morobe, from Sept 17-23.
Netball PNG chairperson Julienne Leka-Maliaki said it was the first time for the sport to receive such support from a company in the extractive industry.
Leka-Maliaki said: “This partnership demonstrates Newcrest’s objectives of empowering young girls and women in rural and urban communities through sports.
“It also signifies a strategic partnership from a shared value perspective where netball’s outreach and resources can be used as a platform to promote the company’s community development programmes throughout the country.”
Newcrest government relations manager Stanley Komunt said: “We are pleased to support Netball PNG in its work to foster women’s empowerment, respectful relationships, healthy living and strong leadership.”
The statement said this year’s championships would focus on the identification and selection of emerging talent for our junior and senior training squads for the Pacific Games in Samoa (July 2019), International Women’s Day Test (March 2019), the World Youth Cup Qualifiers (2020) and the World Youth Cup tournament (Fiji 2021).
Meanwhile, Netball PNG has urged member associations to field strong teams at the championships.
Divisions to be contested are U13, U15, U17, U21, A, B and masters grades.