PNG athletes cap off indoor season

The five PNG track athletes at Cloud County Community College in Kansas, USA, capped off a very successful indoor season last weekend.

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.

Ephraim Lerkin was in great form, improving on his national record in the 600m by winning his heat in 1min 20.06 seconds. However, he was unable to run faster in the final as it was run only 30 minutes after he had assisted his team to gold in the 4 by 800m relay in a time of 7min 42 seconds, which broke the 40-year-old school record. 

Shadrick Tansi and Emmanuel Wanga were part of the team that set another new school indoor record of 3min 12 seconds in finishing third in the 4 by 400m relay.

Isila Apkup had a very successful meet despite missing out on the 60m final by a few thousandths of a second. She went on to finish fourth in the 400m final after setting a personal best of 56.63secs in the heats.

Leonie Beu also secured a fourth place finish in the 600m and the two PNG girls then assisted their 4*400m relay team to a third place finish.

Attention will now turn to the outdoor season which is expected to kick off on 20 March and conclude with the National Outdoor Championships at South Plains College Texas on 11-13 May.

Author: 
Press Release