{"id":373095,"date":"2022-07-27T06:04:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T20:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=373095"},"modified":"2022-07-27T06:04:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T20:04:47","slug":"swimming-basketball-appreciative-of-incentive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/swimming-basketball-appreciative-of-incentive\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming, basketball appreciative of incentive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The CNMI national men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball teams pose with the Northern Marianas Sports Association board and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres after receiving their monetary incentive during the Team NMI Celebration Dinner held earlier this month at Kensington Hotel Saipan. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Athletes who saw action outside of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 but still got monetary incentives for representing the CNMI in recent competitions are appreciative of the gesture.<\/p>\n

CNMI national swimming coach Richard Sikkel said he and his swimmers\u2014Juhn Tenorio, Taiyo Akimaru, Jinie Thompson, and Maria Batallones\u2014that suited up in the 2022 FINA World Championship are happy with the cash reward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very encouraging to see this level of financial support for all sports from NMSA and the CNMI government. The recent improvements in infrastructure are also promising for the future of and the level of sports played in the CNMI. I know the swimmers and coaches were not expecting any financial incentives, that\u2019s not what drives us, but it is very much appreciated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CNMI national men\u2019s basketball coach Joe Diaz said while he and his players weren\u2019t expecting any monetary incentives, they\u2019re happy to have been included in the windfall just the same.
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<\/a>
The CNMI National Swimming Team poses with the Northern Marianas Sports Association board and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres after receiving their monetary incentive during the Team NMI Celebration Dinner held earlier this month at Kensington Hotel Saipan. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst I really want to thank our Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation board members. I was so shocked that we are included in the incentive and our players were so happy to also be included in this. Personally, I do want to thank [Gov. Ralph DLG Torres] for this incentive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that next in his wishlist is a national training center not only for national players of basketball but also other sports teams representing the CNMI in off-island tournaments.
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The CNMI National Athletics Team to the 2022 Oceania Athletics Championships poses with the Northern Marianas Sports Association board and Gov. Ralph DLG Torres after receiving their monetary incentive during the Team NMI Celebration Dinner held earlier this month at Kensington Hotel Saipan. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
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For Catherine Attao-Toves, CNMI women\u2019s national basketball coach, she and her wards are grateful for the cash incentive doled out by the government during the Team NMI Celebration Dinner held earlier this month at Kensington Hotel Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the incentives being extended to the Micro Cup athletes, we were quite surprised. We were just grateful that we were invited to attend the banquet and be a part of Team NMI\u2019s celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attao-Toves added that the CNMI women\u2019s national basketball team is very excited with the efforts in developing sports facilities in the CNMI.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we prepared for the Micro Cup, we were challenged with a venue as many of our gyms were preparing for the Pacific Mini Games.\u00a0 We are very grateful for the opportunity to use the TSL Gym at REM Center. With the success that the fellow sports federations had at the Pacific Mini Games, the NMIBF Women\u2019s Program is committed to continue its growth and strive to be a medal contender for the 2023 Micronesia Games. Therefore, we look forward to the improvements of our facilities and raising the standard of competitive basketball within the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CNMI men\u2019s national basketball team won bronze and the women silver in the 2022 FIBA Micronesian Cup held in early June in Guam.<\/p>\n

Aside from athletes in the 2022 FINA World Cup and 2022 FIBA Micronesian Cup, participants of the 2022 Oceania Athletics Championships in Mackay, Australia also were given monetary incentives by the Torres administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Athletes who saw action outside of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 but still…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":373084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[310],"class_list":["post-373095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373095","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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}