2018 Commonwealth Games

It began slowly but ended with a silver medal win courtesy of Morea Baru’s outstanding performance in the men’s 62kg weightlifting competition.

Another highlight of the day was the impressive win by boxer, Thadius Katua, in the preliminary rounds of the men’s 60kg division. Katua outscored his Nigerian opponent with classy footwork and super-fast punches which saw him through to the next round.

More than 6,600 athletes and officials from 70 Commonwealth nations and territories will take part in 11 days of competition from 4^th to 15^th of April 2018.

Team PNG, consisting of 56 athletes and 32 officials, including the General Management Team, has arrived in Gold Coast and are gearing up for the event.

They will participate in 10 of the 23 sports offered during the Games.

The 10 sports are; Athletics (para-athletics), boxing, lawn bowls, rugby 7s, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis (para-table tennis), triathlon and weightlifting.

Executives of the PNG CGA released the names this week following the finalization of the sports entries and an exhaustive process of selection and justification hearings, to ensure that athletes had met the qualifying standards agreed to by their national sporting federations and the PNG CGA or were regarded as the best in Papua New Guinea, for their particular event.

With the support of the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee, Papua New Guinea Swimming Inc organised for the two swimmers, both 17, to train in Port Moresby for the week leading up to a competition in Australia.

PNGSI Secretary, Carly Pini, said the two swimmers departed for Brisbane on Wednesday this week. They flew to Melbourne on Thursday and were to be joined by experienced PNG swimmer Ashley Seeto.

They are currently competing at the 2018 Victorian Open Championships being held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) from January 12-14.

The squad: Sam Seghers, Ryan Maskelyne, Ashley Seeto, Leonard Kalate and Joshua Tarere.

Livingston Akai has withdrawn from the endorsed squad due to education commitments.

“The final confirmed team will be announced soon after February 2nd, 2018, “said PNG Swimming Inc.”

The 2018 Commonwealth Games will run from April 4-15.

Personal development coordinator at the High Performance Sport Southern Centre for Excellence, Richard Ora said the summit has helped build the confidence in the athletes and coaches.

The summit was facilitated by Sports Super Centre - Gold Coast and the Runaway Bay Sport and Leadership Excellence Centre from October 19-25.

The 30 participants were from 18 sporting codes that will represent PNG at the Games.

These included lawn bowls, boxing, rugby 7s, athletics, netball, squash, swimming and paralympics.

A global audience of more than one billion people is expected to watch the Games on Australia's Gold Coast.

Broadcasters in Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will have access to TVNZ's live coverage and daily highlights packages from the Games.

The 2018 Games Chief Executive, Mark Peters, says the event will be a celebration of all of Oceania.

The organisers said the Boston-based business Jack Morton was contracted after a worldwide selection process.

Committee spokesman Marcus Hill said the company had been operating in Australia for decades and was best-suited for the job.

"They actually have range previous experiences have previously done the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow," he said.