By Lorraine Genia – EM TV Sports, Port Moresby
Following the athletes forum held in Port Moresby, the High Performance division is now focused on the welfare of athletes.
With Simon Morris as the newly appointed physiotherapist, the HPTC staff will be travelling nationwide.
Their first session for the year was conducted in Kokopo, for the New Guinea Islands Region.
The HP division plans on visiting each of the four regions in Papua New Guinea, in the lead up to the games.
The High Performance division will be travelling to Lae and Goroka in coming days to conduct screen tests and run education sessions, as part of their drive to emphasise the importance of the athletes’ welfare.
These tests that will be conducted in each region will assist the HPTC in understanding the current status of athletes, in the regions outside of Port Moresby.
From previous tests, the HPTC concluded that Port Moresby based athletes proved to be stronger and fitter, with the facilities on offer, compared to other centres.
In the athletes forum, Janet Gimot stressed although Papua New Guinea has been without a strong system in place to monitor the wellbeing of athletes, there are plans underway to establish one.
With a fully-equipped team, to cover all elements of sports, from fitness, to dieting and supplementing, to psychology and physiotherapy, the High Performance division will be extending their services, to centres outside of Port Moresby.
The HPTC staff will be in Lae on Saturday and Sunday, and will travel up to Goroka to conduct the same tests and sessions on Monday and Tuesday, which run in alignment with the National Boxing trials, for the Pacific Games.
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