By GABRIEL KATUHO
DAVID Arua from Oro Province has been representing his province many times in national games by participating in PNG games and games within Oceania.
However, this year is different for this Oro Kavian as he decided to make his first appearance in the 7s World Cup, representing Papua New Guinea.
Hailing from Hohorita in the Central Kaiva area of Oro province, David Arua will for the first time represent the country in the Touch World Cup tournament in United Kingdom this month (July).
While living in the fringe of CCR Street in Popondetta Town, Arua started playing touch footy during his young days.
To be precise, his passion of playing touch footy in sporting arena started to grow when he was doing sixth grade at the Popondetta Primary School.
Speaking during an interview with the Sunday Bulletin, Mr Arua expressed how excitement he was to be part of the PNG’s 7s Team in the upcoming Touch World Cup.
“My first elite travel was in 2013 when we took part in the fan Pacific games in Gold Coast Australia,” he said.
“After returning from Australia, I was employed and could not actively participate in the games, however, I always took my off days playing,” Mr Arua said.
Despite job commitment, the Oro Kavian realized that he needed to get back to the field to keep himself fit and also playing for the provincial team.
“In 2002 I started travelling again with Popondetta touch team to Lae, Morobe province, for the national games.
“Our open man’s division made it to the finals with Lae Cooperate and lost to them, however, we won in the open mix finals against the Lae Cooperate,” Arua said.
Last year (2023), Popondetta was the host and both of his team went to the finals.
“We defended our title by winning the open mix division against Port Moresby Cooperate, but could not win the open man’s division,” he said.
While coming back and maintaining his consistency in training, Arua was selected to travel to Solomon Island for the 2023 Pacific Games.
“Last year I travel as PNG representative for touch footy to Pacific Games in Solomon Island.
“I played in the open man’s division and we won silver medals.”
This month, Arua will make his debut in the world cup arena with PNG touch footy team.
He is confident that he will blend in well with his team mates to put up a competitive challenge against other countries.
Arua expressed his excitement of representing his family, province and the country.
He said putting PNG color gives him pride to represent his country at the world stage.
Mr Arua encouraged the young ones who wish to take up the code to be disciplined at all times and be committed to their aims and goals so that they can achieve make it through.
The Touch World Cup in United Kingdom will commence on July 16 and ends on July 21.
