(NMSA) — Northern Marianas Sports Association President Jerry Tan issued the following statement regarding the postponement of the 2023 Micronesian Games that the Marshall Islands was supposed to host in July:
“The Northern Marianas Sports Association understands the difficult decision that the Micronesian Games Council, the Marshall Islands National Olympic Committee, and the organizing committee of the 10th Micronesian Games had to make. We were in the same position a couple of years ago when uncertainties caused by the pandemic prompted us to postpone the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games. There are a lot of moving parts to hosting a multi-sports competition, such as the Micronesian Games, and one of the critical components are the venues, which in the Marshall Islands’ case are not yet ready. The safety of the athletes and other participants in the Micro Games is of utmost importance.
“We will continue to communicate with the Marshall Islands and the Micronesian Games Council to update our national federations on the latest development about the Micro Games, particularly the new dates for the event. For the meantime, we encourage our national federations to continue their preparations for the Games. We could take the Micronesian Games postponement as an opportunity to train longer, work on our logistical preparations for the competition, and gather more resources. The postponement may also give us more time to hold local tournaments that would help in our national teams’ preparations for the Micro Games as well as increase the pool of players we could tap not just for the Micro Games but also for other competitions.”
Jerry Tan
