Row not over

By ELIZABETH VUVU
TEAM East New Britain have refuted claims by NCD Governor Powes Parkop that they had breached PNG Games rules at the Kokopo tournament.
Parkop said earlier this week he was not happy with the awarding of two additional gold medals to Team ENB who he claimed had breached the games charter.
PNG Games Council member Edris Kumbrawah awarded the gold medals to ENB after Bougainville withdrew from the kickboxing finals.

Those two golds put ENB on 39 gold, 51 silver and 35 bronze medals ahead of NCD with 39 gold, 21 silver and 35 bronze medals.
Parkop also claimed ENB and Morobe had breached games rules by fielding elite athletes who won gold medals in their individual track and field events.
ENB chef de mission Wilson Matava said yesterday defended their elite athletes, saying that Betty Burua and Kevin Kapmatana were only allowed to run in the relays.
“ENB is known for producing some of the finest athletes in PNG and all our elite athletes were never fielded except Burua and Kapmatana who only ran in the 100m and 200m relays.”
“We were certain that our athletes would produce over 20 medals which they did. They delivered 41 medals of which 16 were gold.”
“We never cheated.”
Matava added that elite athletes were allowed to participate but not to be fielded two at one time and only through interchange.
“ENB did not field elite athletes in rugby 7s, league 9s and our Guria players and Pukpuk development squad did not compete. This was the same for softball and basketball.”
He said the team’s previous performances in previous years saw them in the top 10 but this year they managed to make it to the top position.
“We have learnt from the previous games and we know we will be up against Eastern Highlands, Morobe and Central in 2014 and have identified our weaknesses and will be preparing a strong team to participate in all categories.”
Meanwhile,  NCD are still disputing the final games medal tally, which ended in Kokopo last Friday.
A disappointed chef de mission, Numa Alu, called a media conference yesterday to explain why the games council was wrong in declaring the host team as champions.
“We need to get the record straight,” Alu said with the support of games kick-boxing coordinator Michael Oki.
“This is not possible because a fighter cannot be awarded without fighting his opponent,” Oki said.
“If an opponent withdraws or cannot fight, there must be someone else there (another province) to fight but must be in the same category.”