MBT features top- flight competition
Majuro — Sixteen men’s and women’s basketball teams from nine islands will showcase the best players in the Micronesian region later this month in Majuro.
In preparation for Outrigger’s Micronesian Basketball Tournament, which will be July 28-August 7, the organizing committee unveiled new Olympic Games-style glass backboards, 30-second shot clocks, and scoreboards at a ceremony this week attended by Marshall Islands President Kessai Note. Note helped inaugurate the new baskets with a 20 foot hook shot that drew cheers from the crowd attending the ceremony.
“The new basketball equipment is just one part of our effort to make this a first class tournament,” said tournament director Terry Sasser. “In addition, all of the players and coaches will be staying and eating at the Outrigger Marshall Islands Resort — the first time for athletes to stay in a top flight hotel during a regional sports competition.”
Sasser noted that the backboards are the same as those that are to be used at the Olympic Games in Sydney later this year, and were purchased with financial support from the Australian Embassy in Pohnpei.
Guam, Yap, Palau, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kiribati and the Marshalls are fielding both men’s and women’s teams, while Saipan and Kosrae are bringing men’s teams only to the 12-day Majuro tournament.
Guam’s men will be defending their gold medal won during the Micronesian Games in Palau two years ago, when they defeated Pohnpei.
Meanwhile, Palau’s women’s team is the defending gold medalist from the Micro Games, having handed Guam women their first-ever defeat in a gold medal game.
“The Palau women’s victory over Guam two years ago in the gold medal game in Palau shows how far the islands have come in developing basketball talent,” said tournament organizing committee chairman Giff Johnson. “It used to be that Guam was unbeatable. Palau proved that’s no longer the case.”
Johnson, who is also coaching the first national women’s team for the Marshalls added, “Who knows what’ll happen in Majuro later this month. From the reports we hear, many of the islands, like Palau and Guam, are bringing younger but very talented teams. We also hear that Kosrae will have a terrific men’s team for the tourney.”
With an expected 250 athletes, coaches and officials, Outrigger’s Micronesian Basketball Tournament is the biggest sports event to be held in the Marshall Islands. The basketball tournament is held every four years; the first was conducted in Kosrae in 1996.
