Official commends Tsiamalili for staging major events

AN official has commended outgoing Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation (PNGSF) executive director and Bougainville presidential hopeful Peter Tsiamalili Jr for helping stage major events in the country.
During Tsiamalili’s farewell ceremony last week, Papua New Guinea Karate-Do president Carl Mari’Bera acknowledged the government agency’s role in planning and coordinating sporting events.
“PNG has actually achieved several milestones in sports in the last five years, starting with the hosting of the 2015 Pacific Games, 2016 Fifa Under-20 Women’s World Cup and the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, to name a few,” he said.
“Planning and preparation for these events certainly called for a country-wide involvement but the linchpin in the coordination of these events was PNGSF.
“Coordinating with national sports federations, PNG Olympic Committee, international sporting bodies, the Government and sponsors wasn’t easy.
“But Papua New Guinea delivered with which PNGSF was a driving factor and Peter obviously played a vital role in the achievements.
“The legacy of the Pacific Games (in 2015) was a challenge that we all have had hard times with in translating into reality, particularly, with access to the sports venues in the early years after the Games, their maintenance.”
Mari’Bera said a major achievement of PNGSF was the custodianship of High Performance Sport PNG (HPSPNG).
He said level of support from HPSPNG and the National Sports Institute was overwhelming for athletes since 2015 which showed in their performance at international events.