Scouts out to pick athletes

By ZACHERY PER
THE PNG Sports Foundation’s campaign, Grassroots to Gold 2015 and beyond, is spearheading the talent identification programme at the 5th PNG Games, programme manager Geoffrey Gideon said on Sunday.
He said the search for talented Papua New Guineans with the potential to represent the country would begin at Kokopo.
Gideon said the programme aimed to work closely with its key partners, schools, urban and rural communities and national sporting bodies to identify athletes between the ages of 12 and 19 years.
“PNG Sports Foundation talent identification programme team will be using the PNG Games as one of the opportunities to scout for potential athletes at this level,” he said.
“The team will be gathering data, including athletes’ bio-data, demographics, body physics, competition experiences, personal attributes, individual performances, general skills and team play assessments.
“The results of this exercise will be used by the team to assist them in improving budgetary plans for regional and national development camps.”
Gideon said potential athletes would be invited to regional development camps for further training.
He said the next phase was talent development based on the athletes’ motor performances and potential skills.
“At the same time all efforts will be made for trained potential athletes to attend organised championships for competitions experience,” Gideon said.
“All national sporting bodies’ technical officials and national coaches are encouraged to work closely with the team to identify talents.
“For Papua New Guinea’s sport to succeed in the future, sports administrators at all levels whether they participate at provincial games, PNG Games, national championships or international events should have a junior development programme in place.” to develop both training and competition experiences.”