Sanma Games in August at Port Olry

Eleven area councils in Sanma Province are looking forward to participating in the Sanma Provincial Games this month.

The province’s Youth and Sports Development Officer, Newman Tangis, says the games will be held from 23–27 August at Port Olry in East Santo area council.

He says this is the first time the Sanma Provincial Games will be staged outside the provincial capital; and the province is working hard to get more rural and remote athletes involved.

Mr Tangis says the 11 area councils staged local games in July and that they have now selected their best athletes to participate in the provincial games and are busy preparing for the Port Orly event.

“The provincial games will select the best athletes to represent Sanma Province in the national games that will be held at Malampa Province in November,” Mr Tangis said.

He says following the Sanma Secondary School Games in July, sports facilities in East Santo are now ready to host the provincial games.

“We have eight different sub-committees who will be responsible for various activities during the games,” he told VBTC. “Local organising committees including, logistics and transport committees are currently preparing.”

Zekarai Matahu, the Vice Chairman of the Sanma Sports Committee, says the province is looking forward to the event.

“We’ve visited all 11 area councils, and have been running workshops to develop the capacity of the various sports discipline officials who will be officiating at the Sanma Games,” he said.

“Around 693 participants will take part in the sports competitions and around ten sports disciplines will be included.”

Newman Tangis says the province is keen to develop potential athletes in rural and remote Sanma to represent the province in national and overseas competitions.

“We want to take up the challenge of reaching out to the very remote communities to identify potential athletes,” he says.

“Visiting the remote areas and staging our provincial games in area councils like we are this year, helps us to identify more athletes across the province who can represent Sanma in the national games.”

He says this year the Sanma Sports Committee visited very remote areas in the province for the first time, including areas on the west coast and in northwest Santo.

He says rural and remote communities have appreciated the visits which have helped to build capacity in different sports. And, he says communities have particularly enjoyed some of the newly-included sports disciplines such as cricket and karate.

“We’ve had very few athletes from Sanma participating in national and overseas games in the past because we have not been visiting very remote communities to identify potential athletes,” he said.

Mr Tangis called on other government departments and non-government organisations to make time to visit people in the province’s very remote areas.