BY MIKE TUA
THE Solomon Islands National Institution of Sport Operations (SINIS) High Performance Complex Centre is awaiting confirmation from the government’s Ministry of Home Affairs regarding its role to administer the future operations of the Institute in the country.
This significant development under the transitional phase, announced by the SINIS, will mark a new era for the potential administration and management of high-performance sports activities in the country.
SINIS Executive Director Aaron Alsop said a key role that the Institute is currently working on is its future, to ensure a smooth transition after the XVII Pacific Games, with most employees’ contracts expiring soon.
“One of the things that we’re obviously very keen to finalize is securing the future of the SINIS high performance program. We’ve got an incredible team here at SINIS, and we’re very proud of the work that they’ve done.
“And my role will be to try and support documentation and proposals that go through to the government to look at securing the future of their contracts for the staff, but also the funding that we need to operate the Centre and continue to support the Ministry of Home Affairs, delivering the high-performance program.
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to establish the Center, but now that we’ve obviously been able to do that, we’re incredibly proud of how our staff have been able to develop themselves to offer the programs that we do. So we think there’s a great opportunity for the Solomon Islands in the future to continue to maintain the results that we just achieved at the Pacific Games 2023,” Aaron Alsop told the country’s media at the press conference last Friday.
SINIS currently has 70 staff members delivering high-performance programs and services after the XVII Pacific Games in 2023.
The country hosted the Pacific Games 2023 and achieved the best-ever performance by Team Solomon. They won 12 gold, 37 silver, and 31 bronze medals, achieving an overall tally of 80 and ranking seventh. This was their best-ever performance at any Pacific Games.
Aaron highlighted that the transition phase is significant and crucial for high-performance sports development in the country and hopes the government can reassess their goals and ideas to propel the SINIS towards future success in sports in the country, like the XVII Pacific Games 2023.
“We don’t see any reason why anything would really change. Ultimately, that’s a decision for the government to make. Do they see the value and the investment in SINIS into the future and what we bring to the sports community in the Solomon Islands?
“We think that the Pacific Games 2023 results have proven now that the systems and processes that we’ve put in place here have produced great results.
“And the feedback that we’ve had from the coaches, the athletes, and the Federations also indicates that this partnership is very critical to their ongoing success. So I would certainly hope that there is support from the government to continue to invest in SINIS. And also to continue the contracts and the staff that are here at SINIS.
“I think it’ll be a wonderful time to transition my role into one of our local staff here to begin that next phase of the program. And whether that means that I’m able to support in some sort of remote way or different role-type thing, that’s purely up to the government to decide.
“But I think that what we’ve been able to put in place in a short frame of time has been able to prove that the results that this organization can bring and the feedback that we’ve had from those coaches and athletes show how critical it was to their success at the Pacific Games 2023. So I think a critical piece for the legacy from the 2023 Games is not just the infrastructure but actually the people that we’ve developed here at SINIS.
“We’ve got a wonderful, talented group of staff here now, and it would be critical for the government to secure those people moving forward so that we don’t lose their expertise and we don’t lose their time. But ultimately, we’ve got a lot of that documentation ready to be able to sit with the government and review plans and strategies about how that might look, whether there’s an opportunity to extend the contracts they’ve got now just at least until April, so that when the new government comes in in May, that would give them time to strategize about what the program looks like into the future, but the government should be very proud of what our staff have done here. And we hope that they see the value in that too, and they want to continue investing,” he revealed.
Aaron also denied any potential challenges or concerns associated with placing the SINIS under the government’s Ministry of Home Affairs when asked by RAW SPORTS.
“No, I don’t think there’s any challenge. I think it comes back to aligning with national policy and strategy.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs has indicated that they’d like SINIS to be a ‘Standalone Institution’ and therefore, as a ‘Standalone Institution’, putting the processes in place would allow SINIS to continue its current programs and services, as well as how it aligns with national policy, where we can share our intellectual property and expertise with the provincial programs as well.
“And so therefore, I think the opportunity to align with the Ministry of Home Affairs National Policy and put in place the right High Performance Strategy in consultation with the National Olympic Committee of the Solomon Islands (NOCSI), the Paralympic Committee of the Federations’ is going to be very critical to seeing the ongoing success that we’ve got now, but also to replicating that for the next 5 to 10 years.
“So I don’t think there’s any significant challenge in that process. I just think it takes getting the right leadership at the table to be able to have those discussions and learning from experiences that we’ve been through this process before to be able to get the best outcome for the Solomon Islands,” SINIS Executive Director said.
