Scholarship awarded to find our elite in sport

Twenty-five students from different schools in Port Moresby have been selected for a 12-month sport scholarship programme.
The sport scholarship programme is an initiation of the of the high performance training centre (HPTC) at the Taurama Aquatic Centre in the National Capital District.
The programme was focused on identifying and developing children in schools to provide pathways for them to improve and expose their sporting talents at early stages.
HPTC talent pathway coordinator Jackie Travert said she believes there are a lot of children who have the potential to represent the country in the future but they have not been identified.
“This is like a talent identification programme that we run to identify raw talent and develop them,” Travert said.
“The initial testing is about assessing them through their different talents and attributes, then identify which sports they are more likely to excel in.”
Travert said 12 schools in NCD had already undergone the initial testing and 100 students were identified and called back for a
13-week test and trial training.
“From the test and trial trainings students were assessed for their commitment and attitude towards training and their leadership skills,” she said. “Those who meet all these requirements and showed improvements were selected for the scholarship.”
She said 25 students were selected from test and trial training.
Travert said HPTC has also come up with a schedule that students could balance their education and training times.
She said the scholarship programme will contain strength and conditioning, and leadership training sessions.
Strength and conditioning coach Kieran Sciberras said he believes those identified and offered scholarship has the potential to represent Papua New Guinea in their speacialised sport in the next three years.
“The main idea is to get as many of these guys into the national teams as soon as we can,” Scriberras said.
“So we could judge the success of the programme with the long-term goal of creating a new stream of athletes.”