NISCGA officially opens its first office and gym
For many years there has not been a designated administration building for Niue’s national sports and commonwealth games association, commonly known as NISCGA. But on Wednesday afternoon last week, down at Amanau in Alofi South, NISCGA was able to officially open its first office alongside the new gym.
Those in attendance to the opening included NISCGA President Maru Talagi, the two Commonwealth Games Federation officials Hugh Graham and Richard de Groen, Niue amateur sports association in New Zealand NIASA’s President and the Niue Powerlifting executive team under International Powerlifting Federation headed by Tony Edwards. Families and friends were also in attendance.
BCN News understands that the Minister of Sports Sauni Tongatule was unable to attend at the last minute, despite his attendance being assured. No other government officials were in attendance but it was noted that Premier Dalton Tagelagi’s wife Tanya Tagelagi was present on behalf of the premier who is currently overseas.
Those who were also absent but should have been at the opening were the NISCGA member sports codes. According to members of the sports codes, they had not received an invitation. This would explain the absence of the member sports codes and athletes at the opening.
One of the key announcements that Mr Graham mentioned in his speech was that a grant worth of $6,000 pounds which is equivalent to $11,000 NZ dollars had been approved and gifted to NISCGA.
According to Graham, the grant will assist with the new gym and the development of current and future athletes of the new facility.
BCN News was able to speak with Senior Vice president of NISCGA Tony Edwards about the new NISCGA office and powerlifting gym.
“You know we’ve actually got a building that’s dedicated and designated for NISCGA’s administration for whatever surfaces we need to do to promote sports. That’s a milestone in itself.”
“The next building, which is the Niue Powerlifting gym which is, again, another milestone because now we’ve got a place where we could offer that place to the community.”
“I know there’s gyms out there that have offered same services but I think it’s an add on to some of the gyms that are placed around in Niue and it can be a go to place now for others who feel comfortable because I’ve experienced that, as as Niueans, we feel uncomfortable to go where that place is because one, it’s a different village or two, we don’t belong to that, we are not affiliated to that sports or whatsoever,” said Tony.
Tony Edwards told BCN News that the gym is open to all community groups and national federations who are interested in running their high-performance programmes.
“We’ve opened it up to the community, to the schools, to national federations, training programmes. You could say it’s probably a high performance place where they could come in and run their programmes.”
“We are not there to sort of coach what high performance they need. But I am hoping that these national federations would consider to say we go in, we run high performance programmes for their sporting codes but that’s over to them,” said Tony.
It is understood that the NISCGA member sports codes are welcomed to use the NISCGA office and powerlifting gym. It is located at Amanau, Alofi South next to Pacific Way Bar.
