| Sports |
Grade 12 pair joins our elite
athletes to Cairns
TWO Grade 12 students from Rabaul
left yesterday to join the PNG athletic team for the Melanesian
Championships and Oceania Grand Prix series this week in Cairns,
Australia.
Kevin Kapmatana and Nellie Leslie was left behind to sit for their
examination yesterday and later left for Cairns. They were joined
by Betty Burua from Divine Word University in Port Moresby.
PNG Athletic Union president Tony Green said the trio will join
the strong 34-man squad who will done the PNG uniform at Barlow
Park, making this the biggest team ever to represent PNG at an
overseas athletics meet, surpassing the total of 30 who attended
the 1993 mini-SP Games in Vanuatu.
PNGAU secretary Philip Rehder said that this team will clearly be
a force to be reckoned with on the track but they know that the
standard of this competition will be higher than any other
previous Grand Prix Series in the ten year history of the event. A
number of Australian and New Zealand athletes preparing for the
World Championships in Osaka later this month will join the best
athletes from the Pacific in Cairns.
In addition to its 25-strong SP Games team who are all being
funded by Oceania Athletics to travel to Cairns under either the
Melanesian Championships or Grand Prix budget, the PNGAU is also
sending a further group of nine athletes to Cairns.
Rehder said that the competitions in Cairns this week presented a
great opportunity for PNG to provide valuable experience for some
of its development squad members at a modest cost. “With the
competitive airfares currently on offer by Air Niugini, we are
also able to provide some consolation to a small number of
athletes who worked hard to earn selection for the SP Games but
didnít quite make it,” he said.
The extra nine athletes are Kevin Kapmatana (Rabaul), Chris Bais (Rabaul),
Andrew Yeweh (Lae), Kupun Wisil (Lae), Waname Egora and Emmanuel
Jorim (Port Moresby), Belinda Vatmale (Lae), Jacinta Langa (Lae)
and Mong Tavol (Lae)
Rehder said the SP Games squad currently camped in Brisbane was
looking forward to competing in a warmer climate. He said Sandy
Katusele was recovering from an injury and may not be able to
compete in Cairns. Mowen Boino is also nursing a tender hamstring
but apart from there are no other major concerns.
The competition kicks off at 4pm Tuesday afternoon and concludes
at 8.30pm with another five hours of action on Thursday evening
and the final day being Sunday when the competition starts at
11am. More than 150 athletes are expected to take part, with PNG
and Fiji fielding the largest teams.
 
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