New eligibility rules for Pacific Games

Eligibility rules for competitors to the Pacific Games have changed, according to the Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association.

During a monthly meeting held yesterday evening at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium conference room, NMASA president Michael White disclosed to all in attendance that the Pacific Games Council has created a new charter and made a change in its eligibility criteria for athletes.

White said that in order for an athlete to compete for his or her respective country, he or she must be a citizen of the country.

“Starting now athletes for us have to be [United States] citizens,” he said. “You have to be a citizen of the country you’re representing and you have to reside in that country for five years at anytime of your life, excluding school and military. No non-citizens will be able to play for us.”

White explained that the decision came as a compromise as various members of the Pacific Games pushed for different criteria.

“This was a compromise,” he said. “People were all over the board on this. Some people wanted the present rules of eligibility even more liberal and some wanted nobody except people who lived there their whole lives [to be able to play]. This was the compromise that was reached.”

White explained that he knows the new criteria will affect the CNMI delegation, which comprises of several athletes who are not U.S. citizens.

“It’s going to hurt a couple of people,” he said. “Obviously it’s going to wipe out our bronze-medal winning table tennis team.”

He added that the CNMI will not be the only delegation affected by the new citizenship requirement.

“It’s going to kill swimming in the Marshall Islands because all of their swimmers are U.S. citizens. [And] It’s really going to hurt American Samoa where half of their kids have Western Samoa passports. So there’s going to be some fallout but that’s the new rule,” he said.

White also explained that even athletes who have competed in the past Games will not be excluded from the rule.

Present during the meeting were Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association vice president Jeff Race and wrestling federation official Joe Ocampo, who both responded that they would probably lose athletes from competing in the Pacific Games due to the new requirement.

Race expressed concern about Kana Aikawa, the CNMI’s top seed in the women’s competition, while Ocampo expressed the same concern for top CNMI wrestler Slade Adelbai.

“I would suspect that something similar is going to come for the Micronesian Games in the future, but plan accordingly when you start thinking about who you’re going to take next year,” White told everyone in attendance.

The Pacific Games will be held in Apia, Samoa next summer.