by Scott Waide – EM TV, Port Moresby
As Papua New Guinean’s slowly come down from the high of two weeks of gold medal wins, theres a lot more that has been gained.
The Unity brought out by the games has been an incredible experience for many.
At the end of this Festival of Color and Sport, one can safely say, there may not be for many years to come an event of this magnitude that can boast our tribes and languages into one single host.
The Pacific Games bought together people from all four regions; the ethinicities, the language groups, traditional rivalry, even the politics was silenced by defeaning roars of unity.
At the stadiums and the grandstands where Papua New Guinea’s gathered in their thousands.
And those memorable momen’s; Steven Kari, the Port Moresby kid and the lift that sent shivers through everyone.
And Dika and Thlema Toua, the sisters who made sure National Pride was maintanied.
In the pool, Ryan Pini remained King stopping short of breaking records but who cared, he got Gold for PNG.
And Sam Seghers, who got Silver in the pool. Amazing, fluent, smooth Tok Pisin. We only found out later, he was born in Madang.
Later on the tracks, the one, two and three Men’s 400m and one, two and three again in the Women’s 400m.
The Kumuls, blasting past the finish line in a blur of Red, Black and Gold.
At the end of it all, what do we take from it all?
Maybe we should now come away from this mentality of being the underdog in International competitions, forge a new path for the upcoming athletes who want not only to do a personal best, but to excel and be the best.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eYtBsR2alSk%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
