Council issues reminders for Vanuatu Games

Members of the CNMI Rugby 7s national team continue to train at the Airport Field in preparation for the Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila, Vanuatu in December. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Pacific Games Council is reminding all member nations that would be fielding teams in football, netball, Rugby 7s, and weightlifting in this year’s Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu to exercise their discretionary powers in terms of eligibility regulations.

The council’s executive board decided that eligibility regulations of the international federations in the said sports would be used in the 10th edition of the quadrennial Games at Port Vila.

Aside from athletics, golf, and 3×3 basketball, the CNMI will participate in Rugby 7s in the Mini Games in Vanuatu with the national team honing up their skills by competing in the Heineken International 7s in Guam where they will be up against several top Asian teams in the Aug. 26 and 27 at the University of Guam Field.

The board—president Vidhya Lakan, vice president Marcus Stephen, secretary general David Boyd, treasurer John Tierney, athletes representative Ryan Pini, and member Frida Delmau—said they based their decision on Article 26.1.d (iii) of the PGC Constitution.

As per council regulations, athletes that are passport holders of the country they are representing must have a minimum of five years residency in all sports not including the said four.

Football, netball, and weightlifting are also offering world ranking points to teams and individuals that would join while earning a spot in one of the legs of the World Rugby 7s Series will be at stake.

Competing teams in Rugby 7s in the Mini Games will have the chance to earn qualifying spots for a leg in the annual World Series. The same rule was used during the 2011 Pacific Games in New Caledonia, 2013 Mini Games in Wallis and Futuna, and 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea.

The Oceania Football Confederation signed an agreement with the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) that world ranking points in football competitions in Vanuatu would offer world ranking points.

The same goes with netball, as competing teams in the 2017 Mini Games will have the chance to earn International Netball Federation world ranking points after the event was designated as the Pacific Netball Series. The same rule was followed in 2015.

Weightlifting, based on the 2013 and 2015 Games, participants would earn International Weightlifting Federation world ranking points that would help them gain entry to other international competitions sanctioned by the said IF.

The council would also follow the relevant minimum age limits as applied by all IFs. Those who are turning 15 and 19 on Dec. 31, 2017 for athletics and judo, and boxing while 14 at the opening day of competition for tennis.

Teams could enter two male and two female players that turns 18 on Dec. 31, 2017 for golf while also using a maximum of two golfers in each division that are open age.

It will be 16 years old for the kata and 18 for kumite events of karate at the opening day of competition while 18 for rugby at the start of the preliminary matches.