Rellie Kaputin

The Athletic Hall of Champions, established in 1987, recognizes outstanding student-athletes, coaches and administrators for their significant achievements. Kaputin made the move to United States in 2017 after winning goals in the 2015 Pacific games.

The PNG National Record Holder was an integral part of the program at West Texas, winning their first two NCAA Division II National Championships as well as opening international recruiting for the track and field team to a whole new level.

Kaputin was the last to compete for Team PNG on day three of the Athletics competition in Tokyo as she shone through a field of world class athletes.

PNG’s sole representative in Athletics at the Tokyo Olympics, Rellie Kaputin flies off to Tokyo from Brisbane this afternoon.

The athletics competition gets under way on Friday and Kaputin will compete on Sunday in the qualifying round of the womens long jump.

Eleven of her USA-based team mates who are gathered together in Kansas for a few days during their summer break sent her their best wishes this morning.

Kaputin has been training with her coach, Phillip Newton, since February 2020 in Kingscliff, which is just over the NSW border south of the Gold Coast. 

She has been working towards qualifying for the long jump event in the athletics competition for the Tokyo Olympics.

Chef de Mission Tamzin Wardley confirmed that the PNG Olympic Committee was advised of the decision by World Athletics early Wednesday morning.

She recorded a season’s best long jump of 6.42 metres in her second attempt at the Festival of Athletics in Townsville on Saturday.

Townsville was the scene of her greatest triumph in June 2019 where, in her sixth and final jump at the Oceania Championships, Kaputin leapt 6.50m to snatch the gold medal from Brooke Stratton of Australia.

Coach Phillip Newton reported that things looked good on June 19^th for Kaputin to improve on her mark of 6.42m as both her first and third jumps were also over 6.30m, and all three jumps were well behind the takeoff board.

Athletics PNG thanked the Australian and PNG Olympic committees for facilitating the vaccines for Olympic training squad members.

Kaputin has her next competition this Saturday at the Gold Coast where she is hoping to better her season’s best of 6.25m in the long jump and hopefully, pick up some valuable ranking points in what is an Oceania Athletics Area Permit Meet.

She will renew her rivalry with Annie McGuire of Australia, with whom she has had some good competitions this season.

A season’s best jump of 6.25m in Friday’s qualifying round, which ranked her third in the field of 16 athletes, raised hopes of a bigger jump in Sunday’s final, especially since her foot was well behind the board on takeoff for that particular jump. 

However, despite jumping in excess of 6m on all six attempts for the second time in her career, Kaputin was not able to improve on her season’s best and again recorded a best effort of 6.25m.

For several weeks, the IOC and host nation Japan held off making the decision in the hope that somehow, things would be back to normal in time for the Games to go ahead this year. However with the qualification process for many sports turned upside down by tournament and event cancellations, an extremely stressful situation was created for the athletes.

For one PNG athlete, the deferral was welcome news indeed.

Kaputin had been in the Capital to attend to Australian visa requirements before returning to the Gold Coast to prepare for the forthcoming World Championships. She qualified for the Worlds by winning the Oceania title with a massive personal best 6.50m in the long jump.

She was asked to assist with a clinic for schoolchildren by demonstrating the long jump, where she landed awkwardly and the result was a badly swollen foot, leaving her unable to walk.

Athletics PNG arranged an x-ray immediately; Team PNG medical staff were alerted and Kaputin was seen by Dr Ivan Ravu.