- and some scrapped

New sports for Tahiti - and some scrapped

Archery, cycling and under water fishing are to be added to the sports contested at the next South Pacific Games to be staged in Tahiti from August 25 to September 5, 1971.

But there may be some dis appointment for the women folk: Netball may be replaced by softball. The trouble is neither of these sports are played in Tahiti and the host country wants to limit this kind of sport. Choice of optional sports is the prerogative of the host country, but other com peting countries can bring pressure to bear for the in clusion of a particular one.

Papua-New Guinea will press at discussions with the Games Council and the Organising Committee at Tahiti in April that both softball and netball are included. Optional sports must have four countries enter ing to be staged.

All sporting bodies in Papua- New Guinea want to send teams to Tahiti, but in all cases the size of the teams are to be reduced. Final size of the full P-NG team will probably be between 164 to 200 because of budget planning. This means, at a cost of $425 for each of 200 competitors, the tour will cost the territory about $85,000.