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NMIVA relieved by Micro Games postponement
The Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association won’t have to do double time in preparing for the Pacific Mini Games and the Micronesian Games after the latter was postponed to next year. (MARK RABAGO)
Organizing tryouts for the beach volleyball competition of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 is hard enough.
Now imagine also holding tryouts at the same time for the indoor volleyball competition of the Micronesian Games that was originally scheduled in the latter part of this year.
Good thing Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association president Somia Quan won’t have to worry about indoor volleyball tryouts for the Micro Games in the immediate future following the Marshall Islands government’s announcement last November that they’ve postponed the event to 2023.
“From an organizational perspective, it is a bit of a relief that the Micronesian Games have been postponed until 2023. The Pacific Mini Games is such a significant event in our region that it deserves all of the resources and human capacity that our organization has to offer,” she said in an email to Saipan Tribune.
Quan admits that while NMIVA is relieved of the postponement, she concedes that volleyball players training to represent the CNMI in the Micro Games in the Marshall Islands may not share their sentiment.
“However, we do know that our indoor volleyball players are disappointed that they don’t have an event to look forward to in 2022. We are looking into possibilities for competition for them next year,” she said.
Beach volleyball is one of only two sports in this year’s Mini Games that will have events outside of Saipan. It was earlier reported that the consolation matches of the competition will be held on Tinian. Rota, meanwhile, will host the entirety of the triathlon competition of the Mini Games.
Beach volleyball is expected to draw 64 players in next year’s Mini Games with majority of the matches to be played at the expansive beach of Crowne Plaza Resort (formerly Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan).
The Pacific Mini Games 2022 Organizing Committee said nearly 1,900 athletes and officials from 21 island nations have so far confirmed their participation in the quadrennial sports event the CNMI is hosting next year from June 17 to 25, 2022.
