HAVING had 2 years of growth, and transformation in its name to what it is now known today as the Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport (SINIS) High Performance Centre ‘Home of Sports’.
The SINIS 2nd Anniversary this year marks its establishment since its formal opening by the caretaker Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, a journey with its legacy, story, the people and its success.
SINIS outgoing Executive Director (ED) Aaron Alsop giving his remarks on Monday March 11 explained that the High-Performance Centre has had a meteoric rise since the initial national High-Performance Program was discussed and approved back in 2019.
What was born out of discussions with the original taskforce in 2017 at Vanuatu, Mr Alsop said it is surreal to be standing in SINIS from what was a dream all those years ago.
In thanking everyone attending SINIS 2nd Anniversary since its formal opening by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Mr Alsop reflected on SINIS journey, sharing its legacy, story, the people and its success.
“Post-games may talk about legacy, and having been now through a few home games in the Pacific, I have come to learn a true legacy is something that continues to live and thrive beyond an event or the Pacific Games,” said Alsop.
“As I mentioned in Vanuatu during 2017, I was invited to sit with the original taskforce that was established before the National Hosting Authority [NHA] to discuss the opportunity of what Solomon Islands was hoping to do around High Performance.
“This discussion focused on a lot of questions about how Solomon Islands should go about High Performance strategy and establishing a program in country.
“The journey lead to further meetings online, and eventually face-to-face in 2018. We had representatives from the NHA, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands (NOCSI), the Athletes Commission, sports federations, Paralympic Committee and obviously the Task Force.
“Out of those discussions, the question that arose from the Task Force was if we do this, where will we do it?”
It was through the visit around September 2018, Mr Alsop recall he was driven around town by the MHA members and identified the plot of land on where SINIS High Performance Centre sit today.
“And on hearing Our Telekom was selling this land, it was an opportunity to build out sport home. We then established consultations with members of the sport system in the country, this include working on the design phase, a strategy, budget, structure and program,” said Alsop.
“By April 2019 we were ready to establish the SI HP Program. And we then went on with the process to formulating our papers through to the government.
“NHA Board then approved the acquisition of this land, we then had a final budget and staffing structure approved in 2019 and actually started to recruit our first Staff members, many of those that are still with us today.”
As the journey was progressing there was some delay caused in between during the rise of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) situation. Aaron Alsop said it was a challenging time with people uncertain with what would happen to the games itself, and obviously the development of the infrastructure.
Despite of such hiccup, by November 2021, SINIS Staff grew from seven to 70 Staff members, as its training and education programs had already been underway.
“We then had this building handed over. The building was empty at the time, a lot of people had concerns about what the facility would look like as it was just a big empty concrete shed, but we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it, and from two years we are very fortunate the then Honourable Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was able to launch SINIS,” said Alsop.
“Since then we have been working 87 hours a week, we have over 165 training sessions a week both in the building and offsite, we work with over 1200 athletes and over 100 coaches from more than 28 sports.
“Leading into the XVII Pacific Games, we have over 450 visitors a day coming to SINIS.
“A lot of people talked to us about the challenges that facility and infrastructure was facing their sport, where as I suggested that it was actually going to be about people. Facilities is one thing, but the greatest challenge we will have is actually being able to find and recruit and develop people that are going to move this whole system forward.
“An example now is we have all those amazing infrastructure, but we have to develop the human capacity that are going to deliver programs in these facilities.
“So I would challenge us again, I do not think that the facilities is something that is a hurdle for us in Solomon Islands, I think it is about how we develop people. And for us at SINIS, we say that our people are our number one asset.
“I do not believe SINIS is what it is today without the people that we have, our Staff, federations, the coaches and athletes.
“We had to recruit Staff to do jobs that we never offered delivery of services before in the country. That opposes the challenge typically when people assume that we recruit people from overseas.
“I am very proud to say that SINIS other than myself operates completely of our local Staff. And that sustainability is what is going to hold SINIS future in good stead.
“The only way that can sustain our success I believe is by continuing to look at our local group. And that is why I am proud to see Amanda Korinihona [SINIS Deputy Director] continue to lead the organisation beyond the 2023 XVII Pacific Games.
“I also like to have this moment to acknowledge all out present and past Staff, I would obviously like to acknowledge the service dedication and commitment that they have given us.
“We lead through serving the needs of others, something that we often share in our Staff meetings is that our leadership model is a little bit upside down. It is not about others serving us, but it is about us serving them. We lead through serving those needs.
“I have had the honour to see our Staff deliver services and programs to our people, showing that leadership every day, often at times without offence through certain challenges, that is what we are paid to do, it is actually what we want to do. It is part of who we are.
“To our athletes and coaches, you are an incredible group of people. Without them, we actually have no purpose at SINIS. We are here to serve them. Our job at SINIS has been to ensure that we create the best possible environment for these people.
“We want to ensure that we create a High Performance culture is safe, it is welcoming and inspiring, so that they can learn to grow and excel.
“Overall, what we are mostly to provide for our athletes is how to be successful in sport, and thrive in their life.
“To our partners who have supported us, many organisations were not sure about who SINIS was, what our identity was, what our purpose was, but I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank all of those partners through different organisations that have supported SINIS. Whether commercially or initiatives, we are very grateful for that.”
Globally, SINIS has now established a brand and reputation that is recognised by multiple international organisations on which Mr Alsop was happy to share during the celebration, and they are;
-International Council of Coaching Excellence (ICCE). SINIS is merely one of two Pacific countries that is a member of that organisation. This is significant because the investment in coach development is a competitive advantage that Solomon Islands has over other countries.
-International Physical Literacy Association (IPLA), currently we are one of the only Pacific countries engaged with this association.
-Association of Sport Performance Centres (ASPC), the international body that accredit international facilities. There is only just a 100 of these facilities worldwide, SINIS is only one of two in the Pacific that have that international recognition.
-Organisations such as Sports Medicine Australia (SMA), the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association (ASCA), the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA). SINIS is one of the only Pacific countries that has relationship with these three entities and have Staff accredited under those entities.
“We have a number of Oceania international federations now recognising what SINIS is doing, and have continued discussion with us about ongoing international training camps here at SINIS,” said Alsop.
“Oceania Paralympic Committee (OPC) held two international training camps and international classification programs at SINIS.
“The Wellbeing Science Institute (WSI), the Australian Volunteers International (AVI), we were able to be one of the largest partners that AVI was able to support through the volunteers. The VSA [New Zealand volunteers program], the New Colombo Plan which is an Australian DFAT program, we have the largest sport and New Colombo Plan program in the Pacific.
“We also have an exciting opportunity ahead of us through NOCSI, we potentially could be the first ever Olympic recognised training centre in the Pacific. And the opportunity for this recognition is about to take place in the next few weeks.
“Also, we are an only country that has been invited to the Association of Sport Institutes at Asia, which I will be participating in this week.
“The results of the games is not only a testament of the quality of the programs of what we do, but what we also saw was the best international results that our sports had ever achieved in the history of Solomon Islands. We had our highest medal tally in history, fifth overall in medal tally, more sports than ever had won medals at the XVII Pacific Games.
“Not forgetting programs as the SINIS Athlete Komiuniti Ambassador Program [KAP] to identify young athletes within our communities and country, the Athlete Career Expo [ACE], monthly Green vs Blue in-house competitions with our national federations.
“We have had over a 100 domestic training camps, saving the government SBD$5M in funding, utilising our own accommodation and catering services.
“More than 1500 participants have now been through our sports education training program.
“We train over 160 medical volunteers for the XVII Pacific Games.
“In overseas, now we are recognised more than just a football nation.
“We had 12 different countries visit us during the XVII Pacific Games to try and understand how we operate.
“And for us we believe that we are one of the most successful High Performance multi-sport program in the region.”
The International Olympic Committee according to Mr Alsop suggest that any organisation in sport should have 30 percent female staffing ratio.
“I am proud to share that we are at 50 percent here at SINIS. We are probably one of the few government organisations in the country that would have this ratio of female Staff,” said Alsop.
“During our time we have the largest ever coach scholarship program in the entire region. We are the only country in the Pacific that actually have fulltime paid wellbeing Staff, as a full time dedicated athlete wellbeing program in the Pacific.
“We helped qualify the first ever team to the Commonwealth games, we have the largest multisport talent identification development program in the Pacific. We have the largest full time dedicated athlete performance services team in the Pacific. We are the only Pacific country to have international accreditation for all our physios, Rehab Staff and Strength and Conditioning [S&C] coaches.
“Some suggest that 2015 was our best previous performance, based on the world sport rankings, during that time Solomon Islands was ranked 191 out of 206 countries globally. I am proud to say that as per the statistics released last week, Solomon Islands has risen up to 32 positions in our global sport ranking, 159 globally. All of these has been achieved for less than four and a half percent of the overall games budget in just two years.”
SINIS outgoing Executive Director Aaron Alsop also took the opportunity yesterday to bid his last farewell.
“I would like to share that it has been an absolute honour and privilege to serve Solomon Islands. Thank you to all of the national federations, for their partnership and support, the athletes and coaches, I have been immensely proud of what they have achieved,” said Alsop.
“Thank you again to the NSC, NOCSI, Paralympic Committee, NHA, MHA and all of the different ministries that we have worked with over the last five years.
“All of our commercial partners, without you we would not have been able to provide something like the ‘Snack Pack’ on which we provided over 60,000 meals to athletes over the last two years.
“To the government, I had the honour to meet with the Caretaker Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare over the last two weeks, just to say thank you for the privilege that it has been to serve our country here, and to all the leaders that have supported SINIS.
“To my team, the SINIS Staff, that have been incredible, it has been an honour.
“Lastly I just want to thank my wife and my sons, it has been incredible challenging working 80 hours a week, seeing them less than 30 minutes a day, and I would not be able to do this without their support, thank you very much.
“I will be back soon, I will wait for that announcement after the elections, I am very fond of Solomon Islands, very fond of its people. I thank you very much for the respect and admiration that you have shown my family during this time.
“We have a countdown board at our SINIS reception area that reminds us every day of the mission that we have. This year we have Olympics coming up, we have mini games next year and we have the Pacific Games in three and a half years. Our work continues.
“I am very confident with the new leadership team and Staff at SINIS for their continued work to maintain the standards of winning and to achieve, and the results we believe we can attain in 2027, thank you very much.”
NOCSI President, Martin Rara being a Guest Speaker as well in celebrating the milestone said during the past two years, there has been tremendous growth and success at the High Performance Centre, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Staff, coaches and athletes.
In creating a space where athletes could train and compete at the highest level possible, President Rara said the nation has achieved this goal and so much more.
“From the past two years, we have seen our athletes achieve greatness on the national and international stage. From record-breaking performances to championship titles, our athletes have proven that hard work and dedication truly pay off. And none of this would have been possible without the support and guidance of our coaches and support Staff,” said Rara.
“But our success is not just measured by our athletes’ achievements. It is also measured by the impact we have had on the community and the athletes we serve. Our centre has become a beacon of hope and inspiration for athletes, providing them with the resources and support they need to reach their full potential.
“As we look to the future, I am confident that our High Performance Centre will continue to thrive and grow.
“None of this would also be possible without the continued support of our community, sponsors and partners. Your support has been invaluable in helping us achieve our goals and I am grateful for your continued commitment to our success”
NOCSI President Martin Rara thank each and every one being a part of the country’s High Performance Centre journey.
“Together we have achieved great things in the past two years, and I have no doubt that we will continue to achieve even greater things in the years to come. On this momentous occasion, may I wish you all a happy 2nd Anniversary celebration,” said Rara. Attending the SINIS 2nd Anniversary yesterday were members of sports federations, NSC, NOCSI, Solomon Islands National University (SINU), partners, athletes and coaches.
