The Rai Coast Leg of the Madang Governor's Cup Tournament at Billiau is into the top 16 for the men's division whilst the women's division are on standby for the semi- finals.

According to the match official Mr. Lance Aing, the turnout was impressive with a total of 32 men's and 8 women's teams from the 34 ward areas of Saidor LLG of Raikos District taking part in the games since last Tuesday when the tournament commenced.

"So far, the games ran smoothly since last week and over the weekend till now, we are going into the top 16 for the men's division," Aing said.

"As for the women's division, only 8 teams participated so they completed their round matches and a waiting to go for the semis," he said.

"Right now, we are into the top 16 play offs for the men's and if we finish early, we will go ahead with the semis for both men's and women's division this afternoon," Aing said.

Aing said the only setbacks to the tournament now is the weather affecting the only one soccer pitch they are using.

"The weather has been unpredictable and it's been raining since we started the tournament, so at some point we had to stop to wait for the rain to stop," he said.

"Also, that there's only one soccer field here so we had to manage our matches but otherwise everything went smoothly," Aing said.

Meanwhile, the finals are expected to be completed by the end of the week.

The Madang Governor's Cup is an initiative of the Madang Provincial Member and Governor Ramsey Pariwa to engage youths in sports and keep them away from drugs and alcohol; thus, addressing law and order issues in the province and groom the next generation of Madang sportsmen and women.