PNG Hockey signs lease with Sports Foundation (Post Courier 20/12/16)

(from left) PNG Sports Foundation CEO Peter Tsiamalili Jr, PNG Hockey Federation treasurer Manoi Pokiap, PNG Hockey Federation President Kaluwin Potuan and Minister for Sports and APEC Justin Tkatchenko after the signing yesterday.   Picture by Simon Keslep

By FIDELIS SUKINA

A sublease agreement for one year has been signed between the PNG Hockey Federation and the PNG Sports Foundation to use the synthetic hockey field at the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby.

The sublease will see the PNG hockey federation utilize the field for training and competition purposes.

President of PNG Hockey Federation Kaluwin Potuan said the lease was from the first of December 2016 to the 1st of December 2017 and would later be renewed.

“Thank you minister for making hockey part of the lease agreement and for being on the side of hockey, this is the only turf in PNG and the second in the pacific the first one is in Fiji.

“We have signed the sublease agreement for the usage of the facility from the first of December 2016 to the 1st of December 2017 and after 2017 we will renew it for a further two years,” Potuan said

Minister for Sports and APEC Justin Tkatchenko said the sport of hockey had come a long way when it was played in the field of bare ground at the Sir John Guise stadium.

“I remember 10 years ago my wife played Hockey and the PNG Gardener sponsored one of the teams during those days.

“The hockey players were playing on a rough stoned surface uneven and the injuries were really bad and if they were playing in those surfaces imagine what they would do on this synthetic field.

“This sub lease is all about looking after the facilities and maintaining the facilities and looking after it for the benefit of the game and making sure that PNG Hockey can be something big in the future in the pacific start small and end up big,” Tkatchenko said.

He added that no excuses would come from the hockey federation because now we have a facility equal to Fiji.

“Now hockey players have no excuse what so ever to raise their standards and enhance their abilities to equal Fiji and be better than Fiji because we have the same facilities as them so we are on equal footing before we were never on equal footing because we never had these facilities,” Tkatchenko added.