And most importantly they must pass all their fitness tests and prove that they are well prepared.
This was revealed to star sport by NOCSI’s Vice-President International Ronald Bei Talasasa.
Talasasa said the NOCSI’s justification committee today will start handing out criteria’s to each federation; those that are confirmed and those that are yet to be confirmed to represent the country next year.
But he stressed that a much bigger challenge still await each federation and that is testing their fitness.
The justification committee have appointed Fa’amoana as their physical specialist who would be carrying out the tests.
All athletes are required to be tested for their power, speed, strength, flexibility, endurance, confidence, beep tests and mental fitness.
“We are taking it seriously and I want to stress further that it is a must that all athletes pass all their fitness tests”, Talasasa said.
Weight lighting because of the nature of that particular sport will be the only sport that will not be undergoing the tests.
NOCSI unlike past years will be stricter on all federations and athletes to avoid unnecessary travelling by athletes that does not meet the required requirements.
So far only five sports have been confirmed for the Pacific Games in New Caledonia next year.
They are athletics, boxing, taekwondo, tennis and weightlifting.
All the other sporting federations like volleyball, soccer, basketball; rugby and netball to name a few have been listed in the second category because of their unexpectedly low performance in the past South Pacific Games in 2007.
Therefore, the only hope they have to represent the country next year is to justify their case to NOCSI’s justification committee as to why they think they should be included and if they are capable of winning medals.
Talasasa said at this stage only soccer have been regularly liaising with NOCSI apart from the other federations.
“As the deadline is drawing nearer all federations both confirmed and unconfirmed ones should start sending their list of selected athletes”, Talasasa said.
Meanwhile, the justification committee is calling on all the five confirmed sports mentioned earlier to meet with them at the Home Affairs conference room today at 4:30pm.
Each of the five federations are expected to bring with them their lists of training schedule, training times and training venues.
“During the meeting the committee will also outline our requirements and therefore it is a must that representatives of the five sports attend”, he said.
NOCSI’s justification committee will announce the final selected sports to represent the country on the 27th of August.
This week star sports received an email from the Pacific Games Council Executive Director Andrew Minogue stating that the Pacific Games Council and the New Caledonia 2011 Pacific Games Organising Committee fully expects a delegation from Solomon Islands to compete in the 2011 Pacific Games.
By DOUGLAS MARAU
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