The Belau Youth Games and Festival, featuring over 400 student athletes participating in 11 sporting events, held its closing ceremony on Saturday July 13 at the Palau National Gymnasium. The sports events were held at various sports venues in Koror and Airai, and the Youth Games offered numerous activities and opportunities for learning different sports disciplines.
The Youth Games provided student athletes to learn and engage in Olympic program activities, team-building exercises, and training in various sports including Athletics, Archery, Baseball, Basketball, Canoeing, Tennis, Sailing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Volleyball, and Wrestling. This year’s program was a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, Palau National Olympic Committee (NOC), and various Sports Federations.
Through this partnership, the Ministry of Education provided students with daily transportation and lunch at Koror Elementary School and Meyuns Elementary School. The school buses also provided transportation to students from Babeldaob to the gym and other sports venues and back home to Babeldaob at 3 PM each day.
The closing ceremony was well attended by all participants and parents. The teams were presented certificates of participation and each Team presented what they learned about the program and what they enjoyed or liked. The closing ceremony closed with MOE Director Ray Mechol message on the importance of physical activities to students and to keep every student active and healthy. Palau NOC Secretary General Baklai Temengil closed the ceremony by encouraging all parents and students to join sports programs and activities, and especially joining the youth games and Belau Games programs. Both MOE and PNOC thanked all the parents, sponsors and partners, NCD Committee and Fund support, all volunteers and sports federations. Including all the MOE staff, school cafeterias chefs and staff; and bus drivers for their work and support provided to all student’s participants.
With the closing of the program this summer, there is strong interest from both students and parents to continue the sports program annually as part of talent identification and sports development. The aim is to provide full access to sports and physical activities for every student and youth in Palau.