Tokyo Olympics

The Olympic Games has come to an end after a stunning closing ceremony at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

After more than two weeks of thrilling competition full of twists and turns, the Olympic flag was ceremonially lowered with the Governor of Tokyo KOIKE Yuriko handing over to Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, via IOC President Thomas Bach.

The next edition of the Olympic Games will be hosted by Paris in 2024.

The gift of hope

The management team will be setting up the PNG headquarters in preparation for the other seven athletes who will be arriving over the next few days.

Chef de Mission, Tamzin Wardley, stated: “All travel is difficult during these COVID times but the trip was especially challenging due to the airlines’ required longer check in processes, pre-flight COVID tests and isolation in protected areas during long transit stops.

“It was quite an unusual experience to transit the usually busy Singapore Changi airport and see all the closed shops and restaurants.

Minister for State Owned Enterprises, William Duma, presented the cheque to PNGOC yesterday.

SP Brewery, Trukai Industries and Brian Bell Group also gave PNGOC financial assistance this week.

KCH’s partnership with PNGOC is a three year commitment worth K3million, over a three year period from 2021 to 2023.

The funding will support the implementation of the Team PNG’s new performance strategy 2021-2024.

The funding will assist 8 athletes and officials.

PNG Olympic Committee Secretary General Auvita Rapilla said,”Our target is to hit seven hundred and fifty thousand kina and we are on target to reach the amount in order to send our team PNG to the Olympic Games.”

Chairman of Brian Bell Group Ian Clough said,“Brian Bell as a locally owned company has always supported sports in PNG. We are a happy to announce that we will support Team PNG with one hundred and twenty thousand.”

PNG Olympic Committee President Sir John Dawanincura received the cheque from Mr Clough.

Trainer Jackie Travetz said training has been ongoing, and not just for the athletes who qualified to attend the Para-Olympic Games; Para-Sport athletes trained as well.

Two athletes from Para-Sport have qualified to participate in Tokyo. They are Nelly Ieva and Morea Maros.

Travertz said, “I have taken time to train both Nelly and Morea and (have left) my training behind and instead, committed my time to training both athletes as I prepare them for the games.”

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.

IOC President Thomas Bach said that his organisation was committed to delivering a safe Games and had the full support of the Japanese government following the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but the look of next year's Games was still unclear.

"In the coming weeks you will see important and intensive discussions taking place with regard to different scenarios to COVID-19 counter measures," Bach told a news conference following an executive board meeting.

"We remain focused on delivering safe and successful Games next year."

One of them is 35-year-old Tetsuya Sotomura. When I met him on a sweltering afternoon earlier this week he was still hard at it in a converted factory building in a north Tokyo suburb, flying high into the air, spinning and tumbling on a massive trampoline.

Back in 2008 Tetsuya placed 4th at the Beijing Olympics, just missing a bronze medal. Since then he's fought injury that put him out of London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. Tokyo was to be his last hurrah, a hometown Olympics to end his trampolining career on a high. But another year is just too much.

Last week, the Olympics – which were due to start on July 24 – were postponed due to the global spread of coronavirus.

A joint statement from the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organising committee later clarified the Games would be moved "to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021".

The IOC has now ratified the new dates, while announcing the Paralympics will take place from August 24 to September 5.

According to the PNG Olympic Committee, Toua is on the verge of another historical sporting moment for Team PNG as she pursues her fifth appearance at the Olympics.

Dika Toua first entered the record books at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when she became the first female weightlifter to lift when the sport was contested for the first time at the Olympic Games.

Now she is chasing her fifth straight Olympic Games, the first female weightlifter in the world to do so.