NMSA hopes to put NMI on Universiade map

The Northern Marianas Sports Association is hoping to put the CNMI on the world-sporting map aiming to carefully look into the possibility of bidding to host at least three sports under the World University Championships calendar.

NMSA president Mike White, during the group’s monthly meeting last week, asked officials of the sports associations of baseball, beach volleyball, and golf to discuss it with their respective board.

“We’re hoping our involvement with FISU [International University Sports Federation] gets deeper. One way of doing that is the possibility of hosting any of the sport under the World University Championship program,” said White in the meeting attended only by several representatives of each member federation.

Hosting a WUC sports events—where athletes and officials from countries around the world participate—is also good for the local economy as it would promote tourism and bring in revenues to the hotels, restaurants, and other business establishments.

The Francisco M. “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field has hosted several Little League Asia-Pacific regional tournaments along with the 2006 Micronesian Games. The field, however, needs to be repaired.

“We have a lot of white sand beaches good for beach volleyball. So, I would like to ask that [Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association] also look into the prospect of bringing the games here on Saipan,” White told NMIVA representative Toni Yamada.

Saipan also has four world class golf courses—Coral Ocean Golf Resort, Kingfisher Golflinks, Laolao Bay Golf & Resort, and Marianas Country Club—that could play host to a WUC.

White asked NMSA executive director Tony Rogolifoi, who represents golf through the Refaluwasch Golf Association, to also study the matter.

The World University Championship is part of FISU’s program where 28 sports are played in every two years where college age athletes, 17 to 28 years old, participate.

The last WUC event in baseball was held in 2010 in Tokyo, Japan were eight countries—with a total of 169 players and 64 officials—participated, while Porto City in Portugal hosted the WUC in beach volleyball where it attracted 64 male and 52 female players from 22 countries, and 44 game officials.

Golf was last held in 2014 at Crans Montana in Switzerland where a total of 133 men and women players from 22 countries took part. There were also 62 officials who attended the event.