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Sports |
Our chase for tennis gold begins
The Fiji-based players Nicole Angat
and Abigail Tere Apisah are set to become first PNG players to
win gold in this event.
Tennis coach Kwalam Apisah said yesterday that silver is already
in the bag but the two players will try to win the gold medal.
“It will go down as history in lawn tennis for the country,” he
said.
Angat combined well with Abisah to beat Guam pair 6-1 and 6-4 in
the two straight sets for the final showdown.
Former PNG player and coach Vere Tere said PNG has never won any
medal in the main South Pacific Games – only in the mini SP
Games where they won bronze in Palau and silver in the team
event.
Both Angat and Apisah said after their win against Guam that
they are looking forward for the challenge today.
“It’s a big challenge but are ready to give our best shots for
our country,” they said.
Abigail also qualified for the bronze medal play-off today. She
needs to beat Silema Taufa of Tahiti to collect the medal.
Team PNG general team manager Numa Alu and team motivator
Hillary Wong who witnessed the Women Doubles semi finals also
congratulated the two players for making the gold medal
play-off.
“Silver is already in the bag but the girls will have to play a
smarter tennis to win the gold medal,” Alu said.
Abigail Tere-Apisah was unlucky to lose in straight sets in a
rain interrupted match at Apia Park tennis courts. However the
young lass teamed up with Nicole Angat to demolish their Guam
doubles opponents in a ruthless performance.
In athletics, the only good news is that the medals are slowly
rolling in at Apia Park with two silver and one bronze
yesterday.
The first medal event was the men’s 1500m final where Paulson
Gebo did not finish in the top three but gave his all in a quick
field. Samoa and Fiji cleaned up the medals in that event.
In the womens 10,000m our very own Poro Gahekave claimed our
first silver of the day with a spirited performance behind her
Tahitian rival.
It was then time for the womens 400m final where team PNG had
Toea Wisil, Ann Mooney and Betty Burua all vying for spots on
the podium. Unfortunately, Makalesi Bulikiobolo was again too
fast and too strong for our girls but she did push Toea to break
a long standing PNG record in that event by 0.02 seconds. Wisil
ran 55:15 and was absolutely ecstatic when she found out that
she had just made PNG sporting history. Ann Mooney finished
fourth in a time of 56:34 and Betty Burua finished fifith in
58:26.
In lawn bowls, our men 4s team bounced back to pick up a bronze
medal yesterday in a spirited showing at the Apia Park Green.
Our men were always troubled by team Tokelau who proved to be
quite the tacticians when ripping apart our bowling attack.
With Skipper Nadu Namun tried his best to remedy the situation
but it was all left a little too late.
In the end our men bowed out disappointingly and the score board
read 2.0/24.00 Tokelau def PNG 0.0/14.00
In volleyball, in a more spirited performance our PNG girls went
down to their taller Fijian opponents.
Already undermanned through the injury of vice captain Martha
Awady the girls started the match on the back foot. The women
drop out of competition with the finals being contested
tomorrow.
The men’s team suffered similar fate at the hands of the mighty
Wallis and Futuna. The boys from the French territory were
clinical in their performance winning in three sets and sending
our boys packing.
In basketball Team PNG dashed any hope that the Solomon Islands
had in taking home a medal with a 63-56 victory at the Faleata
basketball Courts. Although the game wasn’t as structured as
coach Veitu Diro would have liked the girls still came away with
the victory and remain in the hunt for the bronze medal.
If they succeed in claiming the bronze, it will be our first
medal since the 1991 SP games were held in Port Moresby.
In the boxing ring Francis Oiake stopped his Samoan opponent
Fialelei Enoka in the third round in front of a vocal home
crowd.
Oiake was super focused going into the match, tearing Enoka
apart to the disappointment of Samoan fans.
His counterpart Jeffrey Koredong didn’t have the same luck as he
lost in a points decision to Ataale Gyan of New Caledonia.
Today give of our fighters will fight in the semis for a gold
medal chance.
 
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