Olympic Day celebrated

A THREE-DAY sports festival was held in Port Moresby in the lead-up to Olympic Day yesterday, with the participation of students from six primary schools in the nation’s capital.
The three Olympic Day pillars — move, learn and discover — were the focus of the festival.
Among the activities was an introduction to the Olympic Games and its movement, as well as sessions on the Olympic Values Education Programme delivered by Team Papua New Guinea Hero athletes with emphasis on the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.
Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee (PNGOC) programmes coordinator Milton Kisapai said the event was coordinated with two schools each taking turns to be part of the festival where Grades 6-8 students from the schools took part in the activities.
Celebrated at the Port Moresby Racquets Club through the sponsorship of ExxonMobil PNG, the event involved students between the ages of 12 and 16 being introduced to the six different sports on show with the participation of coaches from the different codes to impart basic skills and techniques.
Kisapai said this saw the students taking part in different exercises and activities in teqball, tennis, squash, badminton, three-on-three basketball and parkour with the aim of introducing, exposing and inspiring students to be involved in the codes.
He said the event was usually celebrated with a full week of visitations to different schools, but due to Covid-19 this has been limited to only select schools with their nominated students.
The schools that participated were Bavaroko, Salvation Army (both on Monday), Coronation, Butuka Academy (Tuesday), Ted Diro and Wardstrip (Wednesday).
Four-time Olympian and Commonwealth gold medallist Ryan Pini attended day two of the festival to deliver an inspirational session to the Coronation and Butuka students.