Kiribati Athletics Association has been a partner with OAA in the Pacific Sports Partnership (PSP) funded by the Australian Government.
PSP is a Sport for Development Program which aims at increasing the levels of regular participation of Pacific Islanders, including people with disability, in quality sport activities.
As part of this program, KAA has hired two Development Officers implementing sports activities such as Kids Athletics in Primary Schools and Women Communities.
The Kids Athletics Classes became very popular and schools quickly requested an Inter School Competition. After the support from the Ministry of Education was confirmed, the Development Officers planned the competition to be held on 24th November. Teachers in the Primary Schools were trained for Technical Officiating and attended a Technical Meeting to finalize all arrangements and answer questions.
The Competition welcomed 13 Primary Schools from all of Tarawa, the main Island of Kiribati. Each Primary School had a team of atleast 20 students, 10 girls and 10 boys.
More than 50 Technical Officials (teachers) helped on the day of competition to coordinate the three age groups of Junior (year 1&2), Intermediate (year 3&4) and Senior (year 5&6) competing in the events of 60m, 40m, 30m, Frog Jump, Formula 1 and others.
The event was opened by the Minister of Education, the Hon David Collins, who used to be an athlete himself.
We congratulate KAA on this great event and are looking forward to seeing many more!
A big thank you must go to the Development Officers Kairao and Rabangaki, who worked tirelessly on the organization and the Australian Government for their support with the Pacific Sports Partnership in Kiribati, enabling the Federation to start new program, which are growing to be self-sustainable.
