Solomon Islands has confirmed its participation to the organizers of the upcoming 2022 Pacific mini games.
The 2022 Pacific Mini Games will be held in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, from the 17th to the 25th of June 2022. It will be the eleventh edition of the Pacific Mini Games and the first to be hosted by the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.
Pacific Mini Games Organizing Committee chief executive officer Vicente “Ben” Babauta said in all, 1,899 athletes and officials from 21 island nations have so far confirmed their participation in the Mini Games.
Broken down they are made up of 1,425 athletes, 266 team officials, 130 PGA (Pacific Games association) officials, 52 medical staff, and 20 media personnel.
By country, the largest delegation is from the Solomon Islands with 212 athletes and officials, followed by Papua New Guinea with 172, host CNMI with 164, Fiji with 153, Guam with 144, Palau with 140, Tahiti with the aforementioned 136, Samoa with 122, New Caledonia with the aforementioned 108, American Samoa with 75, Wallis & Futuna with 66, Cook Islands with 65, Tonga with 63, Tuvalu with 52, Nauru with 47, Vanuatu with 41, Federated States of Micronesia with 40, Kiribati with 35, Norfolk Islands with 29, Niue with 18, and Marshall Islands with 17.
Babauta said ultimately, he expects the number of athletes and officials expected for the 2022 Mini Games to balloon to over 2,000 as Australia and New Zealand didn’t submit their numbers in the June 30 update as they were still coming off participation from the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The organizing committee will get a better picture of the numerical count by the end of this week.
Source: saipantribune.com