Toea Wisil

After winning the women’s 100m title on Tuesday (June 21), the 34-year-old sprinter teamed up with Adrine Monagi, Isila Apkup and Leonie Beu to claim relay gold in a time of 45.85 secs.

They powered to victory, beating New Caledonia who were almost three seconds back in 48.50, while hosts Northern Mariana Islands clocked 53.98 for bronze.

It was another strong day for Papua New Guinea in athletics as they achieved five more gold medals to add to their impressive haul.

The sixth edition of the annual awards ceremony took place at the Katara Cultural Village during the XXIV ANOC General Assembly in Doha, Qatar.  

Wisil, who won a historic triple-triple individual Gold at the 2019 Pacific Games, was amongst 10 of the best athletes from a range of continental multisport events awarded in Doha. The award was presented by IOC Executive Board Member, ANOC Senior Vice President and ANOC Acting President, Dr. Robin Mitchell.

It was not always smooth-sailing for the Jiwaka woman.

Two years ago, the sprint queen was outclassed in the 200m by Cook Islands Patricia Taea at the Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu.

Then she had to sit out the Commonwealth Games last year. But she’s on the comeback trail and is determined to maintain her title at the Pacific Games. 

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO LISTEN TO TOEA WISIL'S EPISODE:

Toea Wisil recently went viral with her Facebook post when she called out APNG and president Tony Green for intimidating athletes into submission as well as feeding them biscuits, especially during the Oceania Championships held in Cairns (June 24-28) in a post titled “Not Keeping it Quiet”.

“Athletes been eating Snax biscuits for breakfast and lunch before coming to Oceania and hungry while here. I am putting it out for the people to know what is going on in our sports.”

Toea did not take part in the Commonwealth games in April this year, after she failed to attend the medal presentation last year at the Mini South Pacific Games.

The Jiwaka lass is determined to get back her title in the 200m. She has been training hard under American coach, Dior Lowry at the National Sports Institute.

Four months removed from her 2017 Mini Games performances and a move back to PNG later; Toea Wisil has returned to the track during this Japanese tour.

The Jiwakan twice placed third place, and topped the medal stand, running bests of 11.65 and 24.02 – bettering her Vaunatu performances.

Her competitors were ready and presented a big challenge for Wisil as many of them are preparing for their Japanese National Championships in June.

PNG also did a clean sweep in the long jump event, claiming gold, silver and bronze.

Track and field events at the VAN2017 Pacific Mini Games got underway today as PNG showed their class out on the field and tracks as well.

Toea Wisil’s brother, Kupun, competed in the 100 metre event where he managed to make the finals for a chance at a medal.

Boino gave some valuable lessons to the younger athletes in the 400 metre hurdles as he came in first in his heat, automatically qualifying for the finals tomorrow.

In the 100m final at the AAA Track and Field Championships in Bedford, Wisil was pipped on the line by Diani Walker of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club after leading from the gun, having to settle for second place in a time of 11.49 seconds.  

Coach Tony Fairweather said Wisil ran well but just dipped too soon at the finish.

In Sunday’s 200m, the Pacific Games champion placed third with a time of 23.96 seconds.

Meanwhile, Ephraim Lerkin and Rellie Kaputin arrived in London on Sunday with coach Dior Lowry after a 34-hour journey from Nadi. 

The highlight for PNG was in the last race of the night that Toea Wisil, as expected, blitzed the field in the women’s 100m to win by a margin of 0.6 of a second.

In the men’s race, Nazmie Lee Marai almost caused a major upset as he closed in fast on the hot favourite Jeremy Dodson of Samoa (formerly of the USA) with the finish line approaching.

His run however, was timed a fraction late as he missed out on a world championships qualifying win by 2/100^th of a second.