The first day (5 April) of competition for Team PNG has brought hope for things to come with promising performances and the country’s first medal in Gold Coast 2018.
It began slowly but ended with a silver medal win courtesy of Morea Baru’s outstanding performance in the men’s 62kg weightlifting competition.
Another highlight of the day was the impressive win by boxer, Thadius Katua, in the preliminary rounds of the men’s 60kg division. Katua outscored his Nigerian opponent with classy footwork and super-fast punches which saw him through to the next round.
PNG’s iron woman Rachel Sapery James was the first up for PNG in the triathlon which saw her courageous effort bring her across the finish line at 20th place out of the 26 competitors.
James had a strong build up towards to the Commonwealth Games and pressed hard among a highly competitive field of world class athletes.
The lawn bowlers had a slow roll on their first day of competition with Catherine Whimp narrowly finishing behind her Kenyan opponent 21-15 in the women’s singles.
Whimp was unable to turn the tide as she went down again in her second match of the day against Canada.
In the men’s triples, the trio of Manu Walo, Polin Pomaleu and Freddie Koesan found tough opposition against world champions, England who showed their class to win 24 – 6.
They came back strongly in their second match but could not stop a fast finishing Indian side who claimed victory with 16-11.
The men’s pairs team also struggled against New Zealand 24-11 while PNG’s women’s fours team were no match for world champions, Australia.
Lawn bowls team manager, Andrew Agovaua, said the team did generally well however, they needed to show more confidence in their abilities when facing the other countries.
“We made some difficult calls and hurt us but we have learned from this and look forward to the other matches ahead,” he said.
In the squash court Madako Suari Junior was stopped by Uganda’s Michael Kawooya 10-12, 3-11, 6-11 in the preliminary matches yesterday for the men while Lynette Vai went down to 8th ranked Indian opponent in the women’s division.