GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA: With the Commonwealth Games going into its final days of competition, Team Papua New Guinea is making a final push in its remaining events.
De’bono Paraka made history this morning to qualify for the finals tomorrow night in the men’s discus throw competition.
He finished fifth with a throw of 49.02 metres in Group A of the qualifying events this morning at the Carrara stadium.
Paraka is aiming for a National record throw in the finals.
In triple jump event earlier in the morning, Peniel Richard leaped 15.23m which was 0.32cm short of his personal best while in the women’s long jump on Wednesday night, Rellie Kaputin marked the sand at 6.81m in a long and chilly night of competition.
Kaputin struggled with her lead up distances under difficult conditions and made only one of three jumps count.
Adrine Monagi ran a 13.92 seconds in the women’s 100m hurdles which was only 0.03 seconds outside her personal best, another great effort by PNG’s athletes.
Team PNG also had its last competition in the lawn bowls event which saw PNG’s team in the men’s fours narrowly losing to Canada 19-17.
PNG Flag Bearer, Vero Nime faced up against Australia’s number one female para-athlete, Melissa Tapper in the Women’s TT6-10 singles competition.
Leading by a margin, Tapper decided to enjoy the game with Nime and both women took their time playing, enjoying the rallies, with the scores mainly coming from fouls and misplays.
“She’s the best in Australia and could have ended the game with a quick win but we had fun playing and it was great to learn from this opportunity, that we’re not just playing to win but also to recognise and respect each other,” Nime said.
Her table tennis team mate, Geoffrey Loi bowed out on Wednesday night in the first round of the main draw against Harmeet Desai of India.
It is not all over for Papua New Guinea as they have two more events for a final run home. These are the men’s rugby sevens which begins on Saturday with the finals on Sunday and the trap shooting on Friday which will feature Angus Donald and Danny Wanma.
The team will parade again at the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday night before returning home to Port Moresby on Monday the 16th.