Talent pathway launched

By SULI SULI
THE Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation through the High Performance Sports PNG office recently launched a talent pathway programme for schools in National Capital District.
The pathway model is aimed at providing avenues for develop future national athletes.
This programme will be managed by HP Sport PNG.
The model is not only intended to discover talents but also develop potential athletes to guide them on the right pathway to represent PNG. The first part of this process is called talent identification (TID).
High performance division manager Cornelius Papau said they would work with primary schools in NCD to carry out the programme.
“It’s quite new for us to work with primary schools,” Papau said.
“Our team will make research in finding ways to get schools to be involved in the programme.”
As part of the talent pathway model, students will go through a 12-month period of training once identified.
“They’ll be going through six months of body weight programme and six months of sports specific,” he said. “During this period, the high performance team will be working with national federations and international partners to get the talents into national events such as PNG Games or even the Pacific Games.”
Papau said the programme was mainly focused on national championships, PNG Games, tertiary institutions (University Games) and secondary schools in the past years but this had been disrupted by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
However with the focus now on primary school level, the high performance division will also concentrate on reviving the programme in other regions.
“The talent pool that we have will gradually start growing in numbers,” Papau added.
“We will need to implement the programme properly in Port Moresby before we go to other regions.
“Momase especially Lae is one part that we believe there are lot of talents.
“Including Highlands and Islands.
“So the invitation goes out to all the national federations, schools or even the communities that have talents, we can assist to identify them and run tests.
“It’s an opportunity for them to be part of the programme.’’