The news came after the Micronesian Games Council adopted a new provision on the eligibility regulations during the MGC meeting in Palau last August.
Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association President Michael White forwarded the modified charter to MGA members last Friday and discussed the new provision on the eligibility rules during the NMASA meeting last Thursday.
The new provision will allow an athlete to join in the Micronesian Games if he/she is a child of at least one parent or two grandparents, who were born in the Micronesian Games Association’s member nation.
However two provisions in the old MGC Charter remain which are: Micronesian athletes, not born in the island or country they represent, may still compete if they meet a minimum residency requirement of three years and the other: Non-Micronesian athletes can participate if they have resided in the island or country they represent for seven consecutive years prior to the Games.
“The temporary absence of an athlete from the territory of a member MGA for purposes such as education, sports training, military service, and health care, or other legitimate absences of a similar kind, shall not be considered as interrupting a previously-established residency,” stated in the revised MGC Charter.
The next Micronesian Games will be held in Pohnpei, which was the only MGA member to submit a bid to the 2014 event.
Pohnpei is also proposing 13 sports to be played in the 8th Micronesian Games which are: men and women’s basketball, men and women’s indoor volleyball, men’s baseball, softball, athletics, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, outrigger canoe, Micro All-Around, lawn tennis, and spear fishing.
The Micronesian Games Council will meet again before the 2014 Micro Games to review and approve the proposed calendar of events and the kick off date of the competition.
