Weightlifting, Table Tennis Athletes Qualify

Team PNG to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games have qualified two athletes each from Weightlifting and Table Tennis.

The four athletes include current Commonwealth Games silver medalists, Dika Toua and Morea Baru from Weightlifting and Geoffrey Loi and Tammy Agari from Table Tennis.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) confirmed that the four athletes had qualified through the regional qualification process. 

With COVID-19 continuing to affect sporting competitions in the region, Weightlifting and Table Tennis were not able to stage their respective regional Oceania qualifying competitions and instead saw the international federations resort to rankings to confirm qualifications spots for the respective sports.

PNG Olympic Committee Secretary General, Auvita Rapilla was pleased to confirm the four athletes that had secured their qualifications places for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

“With less than 120 days to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games it is exciting to have four athletes qualify for these Games. 
“Not long to go to the Games and having these four athletes qualify will help them focus on their preparations and work towards achieving their respective goals for the games,” said an elated Rapilla.  
 
Oceania Champion and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Silver medalist, 37-year-old Dika Toua will be looking to defend her silver medal and look to going a step further and aim for the Gold medal in her fifth appearance at the Commonwealth Games.

Toua will be competing in the Women’s 48kg category, with fellow Weightlifting champion, Morea Baru, who will be looking to defend his silver medal he claimed at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Baru will be participating in the Men’s 61kg weight category.

Both athletes are in Melbourne, Australia along with their coach Willie Tamasi training under long time mentor and Coach Paul Coffa at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute

The second sport to have qualified athletes through regional qualification for the Commonwealth Games is Table Tennis, with Geoffrey Loi in the Men’s Singles and Tammie Agari in the Women’s Singles. 
Both athletes are based in Port Moresby under their Coaches Rea Loi and Jackson Kariko. 

This will be young Loi’s second appearance at a Commonwealth Games with Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games being his first. Loi won Silver at the 2019 Pacific Games in the Men’s doubles and ranked number one male athlete in the country. 

Agari will be making her debut at the 2022 Birmingham Games, she is the current PNG champion having won the last two National Championships held in 2021 and is the number one ranked athlete in the Women’s category in PNG.

Meantime, the final contingent is yet to be finalized with several sports conducting their respective national competitions over the coming weeks to determine the athletes to be part of Team PNG through the 31 open allocation slots. 
The final Team PNG contingent will be announced closer to the Games.

PNG will participate in the following sports, Athletics, Boxing, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis and Weightlifting. 

The first members of the team will depart for Birmingham, United Kingdom, on 20 July. The Games will take place from 28 July to 8 August.

Author: 
Loop Sports