WSF Ambassadors Help Papua New Guinea Gear Up For The Games by Howard Harding 1 June 2014
- The visit to Papua New Guinea by World Squash Federation Ambassadors
Cameron Pilley and Low Wee Wern has boosted the Oceanian country's bid
for squash success in both the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which will take
place in Scotland next month, and the 2015 Pacific Games which will be
hosted by Papua New Guinea next July to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of the country's independence.
Pilley, the Australian
number one who is 17 in the world, and Malaysian Low, the women's world
No7, are spearheading the 2014 WSF Ambassador Programme visit to the
PNG capital Port Moresby.
The WSF international
promotional initiative, launched three years ago, has been devised to
highlight the appeal of Squash in countries where the sport is at a
developing stage. As well as the two leading players, the team also
features Australians Marc Forster and Nathan Turnbull who are providing
coaching and refereeing workshops, respectively, and is led by WSF CEO
Andrew Shelley.
In addition to staging
exhibition matches and running clinics with schoolchildren, Pilley and
Low also hosted training sessions with members of the national men's
and women's squads who will be competing in Glasgow next month.
Papua New Guinea will
be sending a record eight-strong athlete squad to the 2014 Commonwealth
Games, only one of whom has competed in the Games before.
"We cannot expect
medals in Glasgow - our goal is to give our players international
exposure," said Edmond Pereira, President of the Papua New Guinea
Squash Federation.
"Only a couple of our
players have played on the international stage, so this Ambassador
visit and the competition in Glasgow will give our players the chance
to raise their game.
"Our target is the
2015 Pacific Games here in Port Moresby - participating in the
Commonwealth Games is part of the build up to that.
"We want to maximise the benefit of home advantage," added Pereira. "We have a number of gold medals in our sights."
One of PNG's star
players will be Linette Vai, a 15-year-old former Australian Junior U15
Open champion and the reigning Victorian Junior U17 Open champion who
recently moved to Penang in Malaysia where she is educated at a local
international school and trains with Low Wee Wern and her coach Aaron
Soyza.
"Linette's game has improved considerably since she moved to Penang," said Perreira. "She is already our number one player."
Three new
state-of-the-art squash courts (convertible to two doubles courts) will
be built at the Port Moresby Racket Club as part of a major investment
programme being undertaken for the 2015 Pacific Games - the third to be
held in Port Moresby, 'the sporting capital of the Pacific', since 1969.
More than 3,000
athletes and 1,000 officials from 22 countries, participating in 28
sports, are expected to compete in the Games, from 4-18 July 2015.
"We'll make squash
work here," said Clint Flood, Executive Manager Games Operations, as he
outlined plans for the sport's participation in the 2015 Pacific Games.
Seven disciplines will be featured - including Men's & Women's
Singles, Doubles and Team Championships, plus Mixed Doubles.
(Celebrating the 2015
Pacific Games are (L to R): Low Wee Wern, Edmond Pereira, Cameron
Pilley, Games officials Paul Joseph and Clint Flood, Andrew Shelley,
and Carol Kawaljenko, Executive Officer, Oceania Squash Federation)
On the WSF Ambassador
visit to PNG, Flood added: "Taking the effort to travel here from the
other side of the world is very positive for squash - making that
investment is pretty unusual."
The WSF Ambassador
Programme first visited the Baltic country of Latvia in 2011, followed
in 2012 by a trip to the African countries of Malawi and Namibia,
before last year taking in Panama and Venezuela.
