Young Pepes benefit from New Zealand stint

 By KYMLIE KARANI

THE three Papua New Guinea players on an intense one-week high performance development camp in New Zealand will be complete their programme today.

Margaret Eka, 19, Jephat Tulapi 15, and Courtney Abel, 16, were selected from of the current Under-21 Junior Pepes squad after participating at the World Youth Junior Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

They left last Thursday and return home tomorrow.

PNG Netball Federation president Julienne Leka-Maliaki said the federation had received an invitation from the Oceania Netball Federation requesting three elite players to under go the one-week training camp.

Other Pacific islands players from Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa also attended the camp.

Maliaki said the request was timely as the team was also gearing up for 2014 Pacific Netball Series.

This annual challenge will also be the 2015 World Cup qualifier in Cook Islands and is a potential build up for the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.

Maliaki said PNG had so many talented players and “when we put these three into the senior team, they made such a great impact”.

She said this was the first time such an opportunity had been given and “we are very privileged”.

“These selected players got to train alongside very experienced high performance coaches.”