Over 8,800 to attend Games

MORE than 8,800 athletes and officials will converge in East New Britain in November for the PNG Grassroots Games.
According to the Host Organising Committee (HOC), this was drawn from figures prepared by provincial teams and sent in to HOC.
From the total of 22 sporting codes to be played, only a few provincial teams will be taking part in all of the 22 codes, a few will be taking part only in 16 codes and the rest in 10 codes and fewer.
HOC chief executive officer, Gard Renson, was assured by the accommodation sub-committee that they would be able to cater for more.
Submission showed 8,842 were heading to the Games.
He said most accommodation providers, mainly education institutions, had weighed out the capacity of how many people they could hold before giving the approval for provincial teams.
This was the same for logistics and catering, which would not be a problem to provide.
The only area worrying the HOC was transport.
The HOC ordered 25 seater-buses from Port Moresby but were only able to get 12 and these cargos were still being shipped to ENB.
As of Wednesday this week, 10 provincial teams had secured their accommodation and paid their K10, 000 bond for  accommodation.
Meanwhile, ENB education advisor Sione Faiva said he was impressed with improvements being made to the schools that would be used as venues for various codes.
He said Team ENB had begun using those venues to practise.
He said the school year for ENB would end four weeks earlier than other schools.
Faiva said Grade 10s and 12s would sit for their examinations in October and Grade eights would have theirs on the last week of October to the first week of November.