No Fun Run

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THIS year’s Trukai Fun Run – one of the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee’s (PNGOC) major fundraisers for Team PNG – has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2018 event attracted an estimated 80,000 participants nationwide and the 2019 edition saw the sale of 61,200 shirts in Lae and Port Moresby. The 2020 Fun Run wasn’t held due to the pandemic.
Another major PNGOC fundraiser, the Prime Minister’s Corporate Golf Challenge was held last October.
“We host the Trukai Fun Run to sell shirts to raise funds for Team PNG,” PNGOC corporate manager Ian Leklek said yesterday.
“But last year’s event was cancelled due to Covid-19.
“This year, we have taken a different approach.
“We’ll have a variety of events and smaller activities for the public to take part in.
“But in order to participate, they’ll have to purchase the Fun Run shirts, the launch will be done in the coming weeks.”
Leklek said due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the event would not proceed until such time when there was a clarity on the Covid-19 situation.
“However we have confirmation that the Olympic Games will take place between July 23 and Aug 8 this year,” he said.
“The other major fundraiser is the Prime Minister’s Corporate Challenge where the Lae and Port Moresby events will be held on Oct 3 and Oct 22 respectively.
“The objective is to raise enough funds to assist Team PNG in their preparations and participation in international events.”
Meanwhile, Rapilla said for the Olympics, the committee had a participation and preparatory budgets of K750,000 and K1.5 million respectively.
“For PNGOC, we add those two budgets and that’s what we have to raise, whether we secure funding as sponsorship or from the Government,” she said.
“We put through the preparatory budget for government submission.
“The cancellation of the Fun Run last year and now has definitely had an impact on us because it’s our biggest fundraiser and has affected our efforts to raise funds.
“However, we are grateful for our other partners who have assisted us with funding for the preparation.”