Team PNG join ceremony

TEAM Papua New Guinea took part in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at Tokyo Olympic Stadium in Japan on Friday night, a year later than scheduled.
Flag bearers Dika Toua and Morea Baru led the team into a stadium empty of spectators but full of athletes and the ceremony dancers.
The order of the walk out was unusual with countries marching in, according to the Japanese alphabet, which saw Papua New Guinea sandwiched between the Bahamas and Bermuda.
Team PNG chef de mission Tamzin Wardley said the atmosphere was unusual with no cheers as each country was announced.
The Covid-19-related restrictions imposed due to the state of emergency in Tokyo meant that there were no spectators, apart from a few hundred dignitaries representing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and national Olympic committees from the 206 nations of the world competing at Tokyo.
PNG Olympic Committee (PNGOC) secretary-general and IOC member Auvita Rapilla was the lone PNG supporter in the stands. PNGOC president Sir John Dawanincura had earlier made a decision not to travel to Tokyo due to the potential health risks.
Wardley said: “The Games village had been alive all day with a buzz as athletes collected uniforms, held practice parades down the main street of the village and raced to get home from early training in time for the transport.”
She said the ceremony was low key compared with previous Games but still held all the special Olympic moments with the raising of the Olympic flag, the athletes pledge for a fair and true competition, and the arrival of the Olympic flame.”
“The flame had journeyed from its ancestral home in Athens, Greece, and has travelled across Japan in the recent months,” she said.
“The torch bearers in the stadium included former Japanese athletes, children from across Japan and representatives from the medical profession who have been fighting the pandemic here in Japan.
“The final torch bearer was Japan’s tennis star and former world No.1 Naomi Osaka who climbed the stairs to a spinning silver ball and lit the flame.”