{"id":367882,"date":"2022-05-06T06:01:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T20:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=367882"},"modified":"2022-05-06T06:01:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T20:01:18","slug":"tan-we-will-deliver-a-very-good-mini-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tan-we-will-deliver-a-very-good-mini-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Tan: We will deliver a very good Mini Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
Northern Marianas Sports Association president Jerry Tan delivers his message during the 2021 NMSA Awards Banquet last April 19 at Kensington Hotel. (MARK RABAGO)
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Northern Marianas Sports Association president Jerry Tan is optimistic that the CNMI will be able to pull off a successful staging of the Northern Marinas Pacific Mini Games this coming June. <\/p>\n

Between Super Typhoon Yutu and the COVID-19 pandemic that ultimately postponed the Mini Games from 2021 to 2022, Tan said the Commonwealth\u2019s hosting of the quadrennial event presented a lot of challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut through the help of the Mini Games organizing committee and the board of directions of NMSA, we will deliver a very good Mini Games. It won\u2019t be a perfect Mini Games but it will be a good Mini Games,\u201d he said during the 2021 NMSA Awards Banquet last April 19 at Kensington Hotel.<\/p>\n

He also wants everyone in the CNMI to be cognizant that hosting the Mini Games doesn\u2019t happen all the time and is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for island nations under the Pacific Games Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been talking to a lot of people around the island and asking everyone to really start paying attention to the Mini Games. We are the hosts and we are welcoming over 1,800 athletes and officials, who like us have not been traveling much. And when they do, they will be coming to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tan went on to point out that unlike the last time the CNMI played host to the Micronesian Games in 2006, this year\u2019s Mini Games will truly be hosted by the entire CNMI with triathlon conducting not one but three races on Rota and volleyball holding its consolation matches on Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made sure that we will hold sports events on all three islands and I would like to thank volleyball and triathlon for willing to host their respective sports outside the island of Saipan. But we also want you to be a real host to our visiting teams. We also need a lot of volunteers and I\u2019m looking for volunteers and I\u2019m looking for you to cheer team CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NMSA president also gave kudos to local athletes of athletics, badminton, baseball, beach volleyball, golf, tennis, triathlon, va\u2019a, and weightlifting who are currently training to best represent the CNMI in the quadrennial event set from June 17 to 25 this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be an exciting competition but at the end of the day you will have to know how hard every sport and every athlete are currently training. I think most of you know, if you want to compete at the highest level you would have to put in a lot of hard work and this is one of the very few times that we\u2019re actually competing at home.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the challenges the CNMI\u2019s Mini Games hosting is currently presenting, Tan said chief among them is the U.S. visa required for some athletes to enter the CNMI. He said this has been complicated more because many U.S. consulates are closed during the pandemic. Another problem that Tan stated is the construction at the Oleai Sports Complex and how it was delayed for months due to a myriad of reasons.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Tan also acknowledged Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his administration, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, NMSA board of directors, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. CEO Esther Mu\u00f1a and her team and COVID-19 Task Force chair Warren Villagomez for helping in the successful staging of the Mini Games. <\/p>\n

In the end, Tan hopes the 2022 Mini Games\u2019 legacy will results in a healthier CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do our best to support our community. Our goal is to get more people out and be active and healthier. It is not all about winning. It\u2019s about becoming a healthy community,\u201d he said. (With reports from Jinkim Abogado)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Marianas Sports Association president Jerry Tan is optimistic that the CNMI will be able…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":367883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17845],"class_list":["post-367882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-mini-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}