NMI to join 5 events in Pacific Games

The CNMI will have entries in five sports in the 2015 Pacific Games that will be held in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

In an email sent to the local organizing committee last Friday, Northern Marianas Sports Association president Michael White indicated that the Commonwealth will field athletes in the golf, beach volleyball athletics, lawn tennis, and triathlon competitions in next year’s Pacific Games that will run from July 4 to 18.

Ji Hoon Heo, seen here playing for Hawaii Pacific University, is interested in representing the CNMI to the 2015 Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea. (Contributed Photo)

Northern Marianas Athletics has committed to send four male and four female athletes and one official in PNG, which Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association listed both men and women’s squads. Refaluwasch Golf Association will send four male, while Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation will have two male triathletes and one female. Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association listed four male players, two female, and one official, bringing the total of CNMI delegates to 29 (including team officials and management).

NMITA president Jeff Race, in an telephone interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday, said former CNMI junior player Ji Hoon Heo and Colin Sinclair have expressed interest in representing the Commonwealth to the Pacific Games so the local tennis group made the last-minute decision to field a team for next year’s competition.

Local sports groups were asked whether they will field teams/athletes in the PNG-hosted event or not last Thursday during the NMSA monthly meeting and initially only golf and athletics made their commitment to the Games.

“Ji Hoon and Colin will have their internship next year, but both are interested in joining the Pacific Games. As for the two other players, we could have Tommy Choi or Amami Sakano,” Race said.

Heo was a member of the men’s tennis team of the Morehead State University, an NCAA Division I school, and was the Eagles No. 3 player in singles and No. 1 in doubles. He also played his first two years of collegiate tennis at Hawaii Pacific University and joined a few tournaments in Europe. Sinclair is based in New York and last played in the 2013 Lacoste GVB Futures Tennis Tournament in Guam last year.

For the women’s team, Race is considering Thea Minor and Tammy Ackerman.

“Thea is now in college, but I hope she will come back and play for us. Tammy is doing well in Thailand and she just got 12.5 Junior ITF points from a tournament in Malaysia,” the CNMI Hall of Famer added.

Minor will be suiting up for a collegiate team in New Mexico after dominating the girls U18 competition on Saipan and in the North Pacific for the past several years. Ackerman once trained at the ITF facility in Fiji before moving to Thailand. Both played in the 2013 and 2014 Junior ITF events Saipan hosted.

Race said they could add more players on the women’s squad, depending on the performance and availability of the CNMI junior players months before the competition in PNG kicks off.

Meanwhile, White is encouraging the federations that will compete in PNG to start fundraising now. Athletes and officials going to Port Moresby will have to worry only the airfare cost, as the host country is charging no per diem for the first 50 delegates from each nation.

Curiously, there is no baseball team in next year’s Pacific Games, making the CNMI still the defending champion in the sport. The Tony Rogolifoi-managed team won the baseball gold in the 2011 Pacific Games in New Caledonia after downing Guam in the finals, 8-4.

Tyce Mister and Chris Nelson also joined the Pacific Games in New Caledonia, as they competed in beach volleyball.

Next year’s Pacific Games will feature 28 sports. Completing the list are basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, cricket, hockey, karate, lawn bowls, netball, powerlifting, Rugby League 9’s, Rugby 7’s, sailing, shooting, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, touch, triathlon, va’a, volleyball, and weighlifting.