‘Possible to add sports back’

The Pacific Games Council said the CNMI adding tennis and weightlifting in the sports program for the 2021 Pacific Mini Games is a possibility.

Minogue

Council chief executive officer Andrew Minogue said adding two sports is always welcome and that they will discuss the Northern Marianas Sports Association’s petition to add tennis and weightlifting to the 2021 quadrennial event when they visit the islands next week.

“It is possible to add sports back into the program but additional funding will need to be secured. We will discuss that with the parties on Saipan next week,” he said in an email to Saipan Tribune.

Minogue will be travelling to the CNMI with Pacific Games Council president Vidhya Lakhan. Aside from meeting with NMSA, the two are also scheduled to meet with the 2021 CNMI Pacific Mini Games Oversight Committee and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.

The Pacific Games CEO said he doesn’t expect the CNMI to break the bank by adding tennis and weightlifting into the sports program for next year’s Mini Games, which is welcome news given the government is already in a tight budget to begin with.

“We would have to work out the figures, probably not too much.”

He also anticipates no problem when it comes to participating nations in fielding teams for tennis and weightlifting in next year’s Mini Games

“There is no problem of time to field teams. Tennis and weightlifting are extremely popular throughout the Pacific.”

In the end, Minogue said the decision to add the two sports for the 2020 Mini Games rests in the Pacific Games Council executive board.

“Our executive board will make the decision to reinstate when we have all of the available information,” he said.

The CNMI originally balked at hosting the Mini Games, citing the destruction brought by Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018. Torres fortunately had a change of heart and agreed to host a scaled-down Mini Games.

So, from the initial $8 million, the total budget for hosting the Mini Games was cut to $3 million and the events featured trimmed to six sports—athletics, baseball, badminton, beach volleyball, golf, and triathlon.

However, NMSA during its general membership meeting last week announced that it wanted to add tennis and weightlifting to the sports program. Under the Pacific Games rules, a host country can only add original sports from the inaugural Mini Games held in Honiara, Solomon Islands in 1981 and luckily weightlifting and tennis are part of the 12 sports offered 39 years ago.

NMSA president Jerry Tan said during last week’s meeting that it’s always in the best interest of the CNMI to put on sporting events that its athletes could be competitive in and earn medals from, especially in the coming Mini Games.

“As a host country, I think most of you would appreciate, you really want to put in your best sports that would almost guarantee medals. That’s how the host country always get a higher medal count from the previous Games when they adopt sports that they’re good at,” he said.

Minogue said the CNMI should expect somewhere around 1,000 athletes and officials from 24 countries for the 2021 Mini Games next year.