The Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee’s justification committee has approved an overall contingent of 520 for Team PNG to the 2023 Solomon Islands Pacific Games.
Team PNG will compete in 20 sports and the contingent comprises of athletes, officials, management and medical staff.
PNGOC in a statement yesterday said they were making every effort to raise funds through fundraising events and securing Government grant to meet Team PNG’s participation budget of K5.3 million.
Commitments made by the government through sports minister Don Polye for K12.48m has yet to be paid by the Treasury Department.
PNGOC said the cost per participant for the Games is about K10,000 covering airfares, uniforms, perdiems, insurance, and medicals.
“National federations have been levied K2,000 per athlete and official based on their team size, while PNGOC handles the remaining K8,000,” the statement said.
“All national federations were given one year notice on the levy fee last November in order to plan and fundraise on behalf of their athletes and officials.”
However the committee said they were working with the sports minister and PNG Sports Foundation to secure government funding to meet its budget and reduce the levy burden on national federations.
“Team PNG’s preparation is supported by Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) through its contribution of K2 million, where K1 million was received in 2021 and K1 million in 2023.”
PNGOC hopes to secure additional funding to support the final preparations of 32 squads (men, women and mixed teams) across 20 sports that make up Team PNG’s travelling contingent.
Meanwhile, from an initial roster of 24 sports, rugby nines, judo and sailing have been excluded and most recently, Karate, has been excluded. The decision on Karate is being appealed by the sport to the PNG Sports Dispute Tribunal.
The sports endorsed were athletics, basketball (5×5 and 3×3), beach volleyball, bodybuilding, boxing, golf, hockey, indoor volleyball, football, netball, powerlifting, rugby sevenss, rugby touch, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, va’a and weightlifting.
SOURCE: THE NATIONAL/PACNEWS
