A national record for Adrine Monagi in the 100m hurdles was the highlight of the weekend for Papua New Guinea, at the Australian National Championships in Adelaide.
Running in the second of three heats, Monagi ran a very fluent race without touching any hurdles and smashed her personal best time of 13.71secs with a new PNG record time of 13.46. The previous record of 13.52secs was set by Sharon Kwarula in California in the lead up to the 2015 Pacific Games.
Monagi went on to finish sixth in the final with a time of 13.65secs.
Pais Wisil also had a very good championship, navigating successfully through the preliminary round and round one proper in the 100m. He then set a personal best 10.61secs in the semi-final and looked very good throughout. Wisil has been explosive out of the blocks and running the first two thirds of the race really well and will now focus on improving the final third of his race as he prepares for the Oceania Championships.
Rellie Kaputin just missed out on the Long Jump final after her final jump, which was thought to be well over 6metres, was ruled a foul by the tiniest of margins. Though disappointed, Kaputin took comfort from the fact that she exited the competition injury free and said she is now focused on the Oceania Championships.
Sharon Toako threw seasons best 44.75m in the Javelin and Scholastica Herman improved her 1500m personal best by a full two seconds. However, she wasn’t able to hold her form over the last 200m of her 800m race and clocked 2min 15seconds. Her results are a reflection of her training in Lae, which was more suited to her 1500m. It is believed she needs more speed work to improve her lactic tolerance.
William Peka (400m hurdles) , Herman and Aquila Turalom (3000m steeplechase) have all and gained valuable competition experience in Australia since the Pacific Games. Athletics PNG President Tony Green said he was very satisfied with the overall results and thanked sponsors Kumul Mineral Holdings, PNG Air and Team PNG Sponsor Kumul Consolidated Holdings for their support.