The first lot of Team Papua New Guinea athletes and officials arrived on Tuesday in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara and settled in at the King John VI High School Games Village where they will be based during the Pacific Games.
Chef de mission Faye Zina Lalo led a team of 136 athletes from three sports, officials, games management and medical team in the first chartered flight.
The three sports include Table Tennis, Basketball (5X5) and Football.
The second lot of the team left in another charter this morning with athletes and officials from six sports who will compete in the first week of the games.
The sports include golf, rugby sevens, swimming, tennis, volleyball and weightlifting.
Five of those sports will start their competitions on Friday before the opening ceremony on Sunday while the others will kick off competitions next week.
According to the games scheduled released last week, tennis, table tennis, basketball, football and volleyball are set to start on Friday, with Weightlifting to be the next sport to start competition on Monday followed by golf on Wednesday and rugby sevens on Thursday.
Six of those sports are likely return to PNG after their competition ends to make way for the other half of the contingent who will fly into Honiara on the 26th November.
Chef de mission Lalo said this is as part of the requirement set by the games organizing committee in order to cater for the team.
This arrangement will see only the first group participate in the opening ceremony and return to PNG once their competitions end.
The second batch of players and officials will travel in the second week of competition and stay for the remainder of the games until the closing ceremony on December the 2nd.
The codes that will travel in the second week are athletics, boxing, beach volleyball, bodybuilding, basketball (3×3), hockey, netball, powerlifting, taekwondo, touch football, triathlon and Va’a.
