Team PNG’s swimming sensation Ryan Maskelyne finished second in his heat with a time of 29.53 seconds. Maskelyne has knocked off the 29.85 seconds national record, setting a new one for PNG in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke.
Maskelyne was exceptional in his respective events since starting last Saturday where he swam the Men’s 200m Breaststroke finishing eighth in a pool consisting of World Record and Commonwealth Games Record holders.
He also broke the Men’s 100m Breaststroke national record of 1:03:89 (set by himself) clocking a new time of 1:03:31.
Swim Team Manager Sarenah Pini said she was happy with the performance of Team PNG swimmers at the Commonwealth Games.
“Ryan has done extremely well in his respective events and his performance is a reflection of all the hard work, sacrifices, the long hours to and from training, and the dedication and time put into his training,” said Mrs Pini.
In other results for Day 4, Team PNG’s Georgia-Leigh Vele swam an improved time of 1:01:60 in the Women’s 100m Freestyle in comparison to her 1:01:73 time at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, five weeks ago.
Georgia-Leigh will now prepare for the Queensland Short Course Championships in two weeks’ time. She then participates at the PNG FedEx National Short Course Championships in October followed by the FINA World Short Course Championships in Melbourne.
In boxing, there were two tough bouts for Team PNG. Charles Keama went down to Zambian, Patrick Chinyemba in the Men's 48-51kg division. The fight was stopped by the referee in the second round.
Similarly, in the Men’s 54-57kg division, Allan Oaike's bout was also stopped in the second round by the referee, awarding the win to his opponent Joseph Commey of Ghana.