{"id":370306,"date":"2022-06-14T06:06:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T20:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=370306"},"modified":"2022-06-14T06:06:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T20:06:14","slug":"all-venues-are-ready-for-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/all-venues-are-ready-for-play\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018All venues are ready for play\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
The finishing touches on the Oleai Sports Complex is being done in earnest early yesterday morning. On the background is one of two 400-seat grandstands being constructed at the Oleai track and field. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With four days to go before the opening ceremony of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022, the Oleai Sports Complex was a beehive of activity yesterday with construction workers putting the finishing touches on the quadrennial event\u2019s central hub.<\/p>\n

Mini Games Organizing Committee chair Marco Peter said they\u2019re making the final push to have everything ready for the Mini Games, which the CNMI will host for the first time ever from June 17 to 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the venues are ready for play. It\u2019s just the outskirts of the fields that need fixing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the Oleai Sports Complex, the former lawmaker said everything\u2019s complete save for the cosmetic work like the fences and footpaths.\u00a0
\n

<\/a>
Construction workers install the \u201ccosmetic\u201d gates that now surround the Oleai Sports Complex with the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games just a mere three days away. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the \u2018beautification\u2019 gates are being installed right now and everything from the track and field area to the baseball field will be done today\u2026Play areas are done in all the venues. It\u2019s just the outside that needs to get cleared\u2026We just need to clear out the equipment and sweep the surroundings. We\u2019re all just tidying up right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, Peter boasted that if they remove all the equipment and trucks they can actually start the Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe venues are all ready\u2014va\u2019a at the 13 Fishermen Monument, golf at Coral Ocean Resort, weightlifting at the Marianas High School Gymnasium, baseball, badminton, and athletics at the Oleai Sports Complex, tennis at American Memorial Park tennis courts at Pacific Islands Club tennis courts, beach volleyball at Crown Plaza and Tinian, and triathlon on Rota\u2026.We could\u2019ve actually started tennis yesterday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for spectator seating, the MGOC chair said they also have that covered\u2014literally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just finalizing the canopies of the two new 400-seat grandstands [beside the track oval]. It will complement the existing 200-seat concrete grandstand that\u2019s already there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ditto for the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field, where Peter said they\u2019re about to complete the installation of two 80-seat and one 100-seat bleachers for the venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cPressbox is done too other than a little bit of touch ups on the electrical systems\u2026we\u2019re also clearing up some of the road that is a little bit dusty but the fields of play are ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

The baseball field, for all intents and purposes, is operational and Peter said the Palau team has already practiced there.<\/p>\n

Peter also extended his gratitude to MGOC staff for working doubly hard in making the CNMI\u2019s Mini Games hosting a success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of everyone working in this 11th hour. Now, it\u2019s just about keeping everybody calm and keeping the heart rate down,\u201d he said in jest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With four days to go before the opening ceremony of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":370312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370306","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}