2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games

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.

The head of the Australian Sports Anti-doping Agency (ASADA), David Sharpe, said the athletes were caught during pre-event testing along with "a number" of international competitors.

Sharpe declined to name the athletes, saying he could not identify them under laws governing ASADA.

He said a taskforce had been designated to test athletes at home and abroad to make sure the Games were clean.

"That's what it's about, it's about removing the ability of those cheats in sport to have their moment," Sharpe said.

Ottobock serviced Nime’s existing prosthetic to assist her with the Opening Ceremony and determined that the limb was severely damaged and really needed replacing.

They constructed the new limb and Nime went for a final fitting today.

Nime was ecstatic to receive the new prosthetic leg  “I’m so happy; it’s very light and easy to walk in it”.

The team from Ottobock will monitor Nime throughout the rest of the Games to ensure the limb fits perfectly before she leaves for home.

Lawn Bowls athletes are a picture of calm and composure, but the competition has been one of the most hotly contested and excitingly unpredictable events at the Games. Being the busiest of all the sports on the programme, Lawn Bowls has been in competition from Day 1 of the Games and Team PNG has been on the greens in fierce competition with the other 23 countries in each of the events.

For much of the men's 100m freestyle final, it looked like South Africa's Chad Le Clos was on course to take out the coveted title, with Australia's Kyle Chalmers in red-hot pursuit.

Chalmers was just about an inch behind Le Clos as the pair closed in towards the finish.

But unbeknownst to the stars of the show, motoring along stealthily in lane six and gaining pace all the time, a Scottish underdog stretched out an arm to touch on just in front of the stellar pair, who dead-heated for second.

The athletes and officials, which included women’s weightlifting silver medallist, Dika Toua, and her teammates, members of the athletics, lawn bowls and swimming teams made the journey North armed with PNG flags and banners and a lot of noise.

They met with Hunters coach, Michael Marum, and the players after the match before heading back to the Gold Coast.

Since Hubbard became eligible to compete in international events at the start of last year, she has polarised views in the weightlifting community, particularly in the Pacific.

Head coach of the Samoan team Jerry Wallwork remains firmly opposed to Hubbard competing at the Games.

"A man is a man and a woman is a woman and I know a lot of changes have gone through, but in the past Laurel Hubbard used to be a male champion weightlifter," he said.

Secretary-general of the Oceania Weightlifting Institute Paul Coffa takes a much more conciliatory line.

This week’s matches at the VAN2017 Pacific Mini Games were the qualifiers for GFC 2018.

For many generations, the Gold Coast coastline has been a place for gathering, meeting and sport.

To compete at next year’s Commonwealth Games in weightlifting, an athlete must now qualify as no longer can countries send a team to compete.

The six PNG lifters are currently training at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute, namely Thelma Toua, Dika Toua, Morea Baru, Toua Udia, Steven Kari and Lorraine Harry.

Oceania coach Paul Coffa confirmed that only fifteen lifters in the Oceania region, one per country, per category will be eligible to compete in the Gold Coast Games.

In the Oceania region there are only two events this year, where an athlete can qualify.