PNG athletes

ATHLETES OFF TO QLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Edna Boafob, Harihi Naime and William Peka will run the 400m hurdles finals on Thursday evening and will also run the 400m at the championships. Pais Wisil will run the 100m and 200m with Benjamin Aliel entering the 200m and 400m and Karo Iga the Long Jump and 100m.

The athletes will all be looking to post some good times after a period of training at the Gold Coast. Scholastica Herman travels to Brisbane on Thursday morning with 2023 Commonwealth Youth representative Suaire Goiye who will both run the 800m on Friday and 1500m on Saturday.

Pacific Games medalists recognized

As promised during the welcome reception to recognize the athletes, the cheque for K1 million was presented yesterday.

Team PNG recorded 105 medals in total at the Pacific Games.

Chief Executive Officer of PNG Sports Foundation, Albert Veratau said the money will be shared among the medalists, with gold medalists receiving K5000 each, silver K2500 and Bronze K1000.

K17m budgeted for sports

K12 million will go to the Pacific Games and the remaining will be used to finance the long awaited PNG Games. A portion of the remaining K5 million was used in assisting athletes representing the country in Trinidad and Tobago events.

With this significant amount of money made available, PNG Sports Foundation Chief Executive Officer, Albert Veratau, says PNG is expecting good results.

Veratau said, although PNG has won the Pacific Games before, the country expects a win in the Pacific Games outside of PNG.

PNG trio off to Commonwealth Youth Games

Judy Mitchel, Suaire Goiye and Christina Moiyang, all taking part in athletics, were selected by the PNG Olympic committee earlier this year after consideration by the Justification Committee.

They will travel with Coach Subul Babo.

Mitchel was outstanding at the 2022 PNG Air National Championships in Port Moresby where she won both the 100m and 200m in the Under 18 division despite being eligible for the U16 division at that time.

Athletes ready for Brisbane championship

The championship will run from March 30 to April 2, 2023 in Brisbane. The athletes have been training at the Gold Coast in preparation for these events, with support from PNG Olympic Committee, City of Gold Coast and Oceania Athletic Association.

Athletes Brave weather to compete in QLD championships

Unfortunately, torrential rain dashed any hopes of the athletes running the times they were capable of. However, Coach Brett Green was pleased to see that the athletes are learning how to race. 

As expected, Aquila Turalom was the first PNG runner to cross the finish line in a quality field of 17 runners, with a time of 9 minutes and 7 seconds, followed by Siune Kagl, Abel Siune, and James Kuadu. 

PNG Athletes Excel

Competing on their home track in the city of Concordia the athletes continued their excellent recent form with Leroy Kamau again leading the way and with Isila Apkup and Shadrick Tansi also posting great performances.

Kamau followed up a wind assisted 10.36 sec clocking in the 100m (+4.7) with a sensational 20.85seconds in the 200m. The following wind (measured at 3.3metres per second) meant that this cannot be recognised as a national record but it is once again as sign that Kamau is heading for something special in the near future.

First Indoor Athletes

The pair were competing for Cloud County Community College at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Wanga set a PNG indoor national record in the 400m on Saturday with a time of 48.67 seconds, eclipsing the time of 48.79 recorded by Wala Gime on a similar track in 2012. He continued his great form on Sunday with a 1min 20.81 seconds, clocking in the 600m and a 47.93 seconds final leg in the 4x400m relay. 

Meanwhile Beu improved on her own national record in the 600m with a time of 1min 35.69 secs following a solid season opener of 57.77 secs in the 400m. 

PNG athletes cap off indoor season

The athletes helped their teams to a third place finish in both the men’s and women’s divisions at the Junior College National Indoor Championships.

The scheduling of events made it difficult to run personal bests and the main objective was to score points for the team.

PNG athletes set to hit tracks today

A top 400m performance from Benjamin Aliel with a personal best time of 47.7 seconds was the highlight of time trials run last week at Barlow Park.

Ephraim Lerkin announced his return to form with a national record time of 1min 21.1 seconds for the 600m ahead of Messach Fred and George Yamak.  

Donna Koniel was also in great form in the 300m hurdles, marginally improving on the 43.29sec timing she set prior to the 2015 Games with a new mark of 43.1. She was pushed all the way by Annie Topal, who set a strong pace in the first 200m.