Photo: PNGOC
PNG sporting greats honoured
Long-distance runner Tau John Tokwepota, footballer Joseph Turia, and netball great Veitu Diro have been inducted into the PNG Sports Hall of Fame.
Tokwepota and Diro attended a ceremony in their honour.
Turia died last year but family members were present.
Diro is considered one of Papua New Guinea's finest netball players and has both captained and coached the national side.
She also won the International Olympic Committee Women and Sport Trophy for Oceania in 2007.
Tokwepota ran at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, and the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
Turia is the first footballer to be inducted to the Sports Hall of Fame and represented the country at three editions of the former South Pacific Games.
Football coach disappointed after big loss
Papua New Guinea women's football head coach Spencer Prior says the team is still underdone in terms of its preparation for the World Cup inter-confederation playoff in February.
Prior's comments came after the team suffered a 5-1 defeat to the Philippines in an international friendly match in Sydney at the weekend.
He told The National while the players had the technical ability their fitness was still lacking and would take time to reach the required standard.
The pressure is now on Prior and his players to reach an optimal level of fitness with about eight weeks remaining before PNG meets Panama on February 19.
Prior's squad now face the Philippines in another friendly fixture on Thursday local time.
The Englishman says he'll make a couple of changes to the lineup.
Samoa to play Fiji in Hamilton
Samoa has drawn Fiji in the group stage of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Hamilton, New Zealand in January as the race for series glory and Paris 2024 Olympic qualification continues.
Fiji and Cape Town series winners Samoa also play France and Kenya.
The women's pools see New Zealand drawn in Pool A alongside Great Britain, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Sport teaming up with turtle conservation project
The Solomon Islands 2023 Pacific Games Organising Committee has pledged its support for an initiative to track the movement of leatherback turtles.
The turtles nest in the country.
A Games team travelled to Haevo Khulano - an integrated conservation area in the province of Isabel - to witness the satellite tagging of the turtles.
A sea turtle, called Solo, has been chosen as the mascot for next year's Pacific Games in Honiara.
'Thorpedo' working with Cook Islands swimmers
Legendary Australian Swimmer Ian Thorpe is on a visit to Rarotonga to meet the Cook Islands Aquatic Federation.
The multiple Olympic gold medallist came with a delegation from FINA, the World governing body for Aquatic Sports.
The Cook Islands Aquatic Federation swimming programmes in the schools start with the kids at a young age, with some already looking out for a Cook Islands swimming representation at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.