Salitia Pipit created history by being the first female athlete to be inducted into the PNG Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday November 26 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port Moresby.
Date of Birth: June 6, 1951
Home Province: Ratavul village, East New Britain Province.
A regular of the athletics scene in Rabaul, Pipit’s potential saw her selection on the 1969 national team to the third South Pacific Games hosted in Port Moresby.
Representing the then Territory of Papua & New Guinea, Pipit won two medals- gold in the 800m and bronze in the 400m.
Two years later in the 1971 Tahiti South Pacific Games, she was the outstanding athlete in the competition winning three gold medals in the 200m, 400m and the 800m.
In addition she won silver in the 100m (recording the same time as the gold medal winner – 12.9) and bronze in the 4 x 100m Relay.
That year she won the “Sportswoman of the Year” trophy.
Pipit said motherhood did not slow her down; rather it gave her more confidence to work and train hard, an attitude that earned her four gold medals during the 1981 South Pacific Mini Games in Honiara and the nickname “Golden Mother.”
The following year (1982) she was a member of the National Team to the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Salitia and Elanga Buala were the first women to represent PNG at a Commonwealth Games.
Also in 1982, Pipit was awarded an MBE for Services to Sport, and set a National Record in the 800m that stood for 23 years.
In the course of her career Pipit set an amazing sixteen National Records across an astonishing range of events from the 100m to the marathon.