With only 17 days to go before the Pacific Games in New Caledonia, Digicel as Team PNG’s major sponsor, has continued its support of the 340 athletes with the announcement of this week’s two winners of the “Digicel Warm Up Awards. The weekly awards are aimed at recognizing and rewarding athletes who are excelling in their preparations for this month’s Games.

Thirteen-year-old Team PNG rising squash star Lynette Vai and high profile weightlifter Steven Kari were both presented with new Digicel high speed broadband phones to recognize their performances and commitment to representing PNG.

Lynette who will be making her first appearances at the Pacific Games this month said; “This will be my first time to go to New Caledonia and I am very excited and I am looking forward to the experience. My parents have been very supportive of me from the beginning and in terms of my plans, my dad has said any colour medal I bring home is fine”.

Proud father of Steven, and fellow Team PNG mate Rita Kari welcomed the award on behalf of his son saying; “I am very proud of Steven and his sister Rita. They have done remarkably well over the past few years and it is a really exciting time in our home with the two of them targeting gold medals. I would like to thank Digicel for their great support of this young team, and I think this Digicel Warm Up Award reflects Steven’s committed preparations. I have told my children to go for gold for PNG.”

Lynette and Steven have joined the other Digicel Warm Up Award Winners including Tennis ace Abigail Tere Apisah; para-athlete Elias Larry; specialist Hurdler Sharon Kwarula and Willie Jack from the PNG Boxing squad who were selected by the PNGSFOC from the 340 Team PNG athletes who are travelling to represent the country in 24 sports in New Caledonia  

Lynette Vai: PNG Squash Junior Female Athlete

From as young as 11 years of age Lynette Vai was competing and winning at international squash tournaments in Australia such as the North Queensland Regional Squash Qualifying Tournament in Townsville in March 2010 and the Victorian Open where she won the Women’s B Grade Title in July 2010. Lynette’s participation at these events boosted her confidence and further improved her squash skills, enabling her selection in the squash train-on squad for the 2011 Pacific Games.  Not only is Lynette the youngest player on the squash team travelling to the Pacific Games, she is also the youngest ever squash player to represent the country at the age of 13.

Despite the pressures of attending school and as being the youngest member of the National Team, Lynette was committed to training hard and attending training five days a week for the past several months with the support of her parents and extended family members.

Steven Kari: Weightlifting

Steven Kari has achieved a World rank of 9^th in his weight category and is now based at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Noumea so will be no stranger to New Caledonia when he represents PNG this month. Steven, who’s sister Rita is a Gold medallists from the 2007 Games has been competing at a very high international level for many years with recent highlights including the Commonwealth Games in October 2010 where he finished 4^th; the Arnold International event in March 2011 in Columbus winning his 85kg division clean and jerk 170kg and the World Junior Championships in Penang, Malaysia where he achieved 172kgs in the clean & jerk category.

The Kari family will be hoping that both siblings come home with Gold as well as earning the gold medal reward from Digicel of K1500 each.

ENDS