As we enter 2024, the Palau National Olympic Committee, with respective national sports federations, are facing the first six months of the year to send national athletes to qualification events to the Paris Olympic Games in July 2024.
The first team to go travel from February 4 to 9, 2024 is the Wrestling Team travelling to Guam to participate in the Oceania Wrestling Championships comprising of their Coach John Tarkong, Jr. and Referees Christopher Kitalong and Skarlee Renguul, and athletes Cristian Nicolescu, Florian Temengil, Uili Perefoti Cooper, Uilau Tarkong, Anthony Osario and Blesam Tarkong Asst Coach. The Oceania Championships will have both freestyle and Greco roman events and divisions for Seniors and junior athletes. After the Oceania wrestling championships, the team will travel to Cairo, Egypt in March, to participate in the World Wrestling Championships Qualifications to fight for a place to go the world Olympic Games in Paris in July this year.
On February 13 to 27, the Weightlifting National Team, will be travelling to Auckland New Zealand to compete in the Oceania Weightlifting Championships. The athletes for weightlifting are Kyrah Nestor, Ian Aquino, Jezzlee Baie, Blaine Patris, Malik Aquino, Clare Kintoki, Stevick Patris, and Benedict Kintaro (Athlete/Coach). The weightlifting Team will join more than 100lifters from all over Oceania in this event. After the Auckland competition, the elite lifters from Palau will move up and travel again to Phuket, Thailand to participate in the International Weightlifting Federation World Cup to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Canoe Athletes making a tryout to get a reserve place and qualify for the Olympic Games are Tabesul Ngirailemesang and Fenny Ediloi Seklii. Both athletes are national team members, and this time moving to the K1 and C1 event. They will be travelling to Sydney Australia to attend the Oceania Canoe Sprint Development Camp and Olympic Qualification Competition from 12-18 February 2024. Both the camp and the competition will be held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (SIRC) located at Penrith, NSW, Australia.
The swim Team of four athletes, Travis Sakurai, Yuri Hosei, Jion Hosei, and Galyah Mikel, with their Coach Jimmy Jonas and Asst. Coach Ubi Misech will all be travelling from February 10 to 18, to the 1st qualifying event for swimming at the Doha Aquatics World Championships. The 2nd Qualifying Event for swimming is April 18-25 at the Oceania Championships to be held at the Gold Coast, Australia where these same athletes will participate in and fight for a slot to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris in July.
In athletics, the two athletes’ progression to qualifying place is Ms. Sydney Francisco and Ignacio Blaluk are travelling to World Championships World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow from March 1-3, and The 2024 Oceania Athletics Area Championships in Suva, Fiji from 4-8 June, 2024. The Championships will include U18 and Open age groups. Para competition will be held as an open age competition. Ms. Sydney Francisco will move to the Oceania Training Center at Gold Coast Australia in March and will train there and travel to her competitions around the region.
The Archery national team is also in the pipeline to travel to Oceania Continental Qualifying Tournament (CQT) in Auckland, New Zealand from March 16-17, 2024. The national team is qualifying at least three to four athletes from Palau to this event. The Archery Team ranked at the top 10 respectively at the recent Pacific Games and are expected to attend the CQT. The potential athletes are Kulie Rengulbai, Kenic Edward, Brandon Giramur, Christopher Ongrung and Melvira Kazuma.
All the athletes will be with the Micronesian Games Team to the Marshall Islands in June for the games as well. Only Archery is not in the Micro Games sports program, but training continues in preparation to the 2025 Pacific Mini Games in Palau.
The travel financial and technical support is through the Palau NOC programs and applications to the International Olympic Committee Solidarity Programs. These are the grants specifically toward qualification events for national athletes through the Palau NOC Office. The Palau NOC and all sports, congratulate all these athletes for their hard work of practice, commitment and to represent our flag at the various games. Let us all wish these athletes the best of luck in their sports journey to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games. For more information and/or to support any of the team or the athletes, please contact the Palau NOC Office at 488-6562 or email to pnoc@palaunet.com or stop by the Palau NOC Office at the Palau National Gymasium in Koror.