The Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee (PNGOC) has finalised the Team PNG contingent for the 2023 Solomon Islands Pacific Games through its Justification Committee.
Team PNG will compete in 20 sports, involving a team of 520, including athletes, officials, management, and medical staff. From an initial roster of 24 sports, Rugby 9s, Judo, Sailing, have been excluded, and most recently, Karate, also has been excluded.
The decision on Karate is being appealed by the sport to the PNG Sports Dispute Tribunal.
Sports endorsed as part of Team PNG to participate at the Pacific Games include: Athletics, Basketball (5×5 and 3×3), Beach Volleyball, Bodybuilding, Boxing, Golf, Hockey, Indoor Volleyball, Football, Netball, Powerlifting, Rugby 7s, Rugby Touch, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Triathlon, Va’a and Weightlifting.
The PNGOC through its fundraising events and sponsorship program, is making every effort to fundraise and secure funds, including government grant to meet Team PNG’s participation budget of K5.3million based on a Team size of 520.
The cost per participant to the 2023 Pacific Games stands at approximately 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.
All National Federations were given one year notice on the levy fee in November 2022 in order to plan and fundraise on behalf of their athletes and officials.
In collaboration with the Minister for Sports and PNG Sports Foundation, the PNGOC aims to secure the Government Grant to meet its participation budget and reduce the levy burden on National Federations.
Team PNG’s preparation is supported by Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) through its contribution of K2million, where K1million was received in 2021 and K1million in 2023.
The PNGOC extends its gratitude to KCH for its contribution and hopes to secure additional funds to support the final preparations of 32 squads (men, women and mixed teams) across 20 sports that make up Team PNG.