Team NCD has now confirmed a total of 341 athletes to the games in West New Britain.
In a bonding session today, Team NCD Coordinator, Numa Alu, confirmed that they will be competing in 19 of the 23 sports at the games.
The first batch of NCD’s 341 athletes will be departing on Thursday for West New Britain.
The second lot will follow on Friday.
Unfortunately, NCD’s AFL, Rugby 7s, softball and soccer teams will not be making their appearance at the games due to accreditation issues.
But the sizeable number attending has a couple of gold medal defenders such as the kickboxing and Basketball teams.
In an effort to create a strong team spirit before arriving in Kimbe, the bonding session today saw introductions and some exhibitions from athletes.
Notably, the Kickboxing Team is bringing 7 Kickboxers, with the youngest being 14 years old.
“ We are confident, we will fare well at the games,” said Alu.
Most of the competing athletes are from Team sports such as Cricket, Netball, and Volleyball.
While encouraging the athletes to be great ambassadors of NCD to the other provinces, Alu also reminded them to uphold true sportsmanship.
“Let’s not waste months of training. Let’s put our best foot forward and make NCD proud,” added Alu.
For NCD’s Basketball team, this will be the third to defend their medals consecutively.
Only the cricket team will be arriving in Kimbe after the opening ceremony as their competition starts four days into the games.
