World Cup sides gear up

By JAMIE HARO
THE Touch Football national team have started their training ahead of the 2024 World Cup in Nottingham, England in July.
Port Moresby-based players began their first screening and testing session with the PNG High Performance and Sports team at the Taurama Aquatics and Indoor Centre yesterday.
PNG open men’s coach Paul Kasisie said, “we’re starting off with the screening and testing for the athletes, that’s just the beginning of our training and what we intend to do moving forward.
“Today (yesterday) was all about testing the athlete’s abilities and checking to see their level of endurance and agility.”
The team started with physiotherapy screening before taking on the speed tests, running 20 meter blocks, sit and reach and the stand and reach before ending the first day with a strength and condition session.
“Going forward, we’re looking to have two sessions in a week so that’s two hours every session, including gym sessions at the Taurama Aquatics and Indoor Centre,” Kasisie said.
Kasisie said there were a lot of young athletes included in this year’s World Cup squad, especially in the open mix and open women’s team.
“We have a lot young athletes on the team, one quarter apart from the seniors who recently returned from the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands,” he said.
“We have three months left and it’s too short to prepare but we’re kicking off now and we’re going to have to work much harder to do more extra time here,” he told The National.
Meanwhile, the Port Moresby-based athletes will be using the local competitions (Corporate Touch Port Moresby or Capital Touch) to maintain their match fitness.
“At the moment we don’t have any lead up matches or trials scheduled as yet but we will use the local competition for match fitness and try to keep them and their skill levels up to par,” Kasisie added.