30 Apr INTERSCHOILASTIC SLINGING via KUAM
News
10 schools compete in sling event
Tuesday, April 30th 2019, 1:58 PM ChST
By Dave Delgado
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10 schools were represented at the first of many sling competitions to hopefully be part of GDOE and their Chamorro activities. The slinging went down at the Tiyan Softball Field with targets set up at different distances for elementary, middle and high school participants.
Tony Diaz, the Event Organizer, said, “They’re here because they believe in this sport and they want to participate and they are having a blast as you can see. It’s really a pleasure to see them walk in the footsteps of our ancestors.”
For safety issues, Diaz created stones that were suitable for the young competitors to use. They were replicas of what our ancestors used. “They are actually made out of silicone and corn starch. We shaped them into the sling stones that we know that our ancestors used. It’s a safety issue and we certainly can’t use stones here because we have students and kids. So for safety reasons we went ahead and used that type of projectile,” he said.
The slings used for the competition were made out of paracord and done by students and faculty from the various schools.
Diaz added, “There are certain variations and certain types of materials that they are using. Mainly paracord and other types of strings like fiber and strings like twine maybe and some have probably have gone as far as the Pago bark fiber that they make their strings with.”
Diaz says the long term goal is to one day have slinging in the Micronesian Games and to also open up the sport to all ages.
“We would like to also see this also become an interscholastic sport, kind of what we do with volleyball, basketball and things in that nature in those sports. This is our sport this is our culture and this is what we know our ancestors did. It is also in the history books. The kids are really having a blast and they like this sport and I think it’s enough to make it a sport as far as I’m concerned,” he said.