15-year-old hoping to represent PNG at Games

By JAMIE HARO
PAPUA New Guinea’s junior swimmer Rihannah Makail is hoping to represent the country again at the 2023 Pacific Games set for Honiara, Solomon Islands.
The 15-year-old from Northern and West Sepik, who competes in the 50m, 100m and the 200m long course (LC) breaststroke, won three Gold medals at the 2023 FedEx National championships over the weekend.
“I started swimming when I was 9 years old (in 2018), every day I would just come by to the pool and swim just to learn the basic techniques.”
From learning the basics at an earlier age, Makail built the momentum and challenged herself to take the water sport seriously by attending trainings sessions.
“I identified the breaststroke sprints to be my dominant event other than the butterfly, backstroke and freestyle.”
Makail, currently attending Port Moresby International School as a ninth grader, has represented PNG on two separate occasions. She represented PNG last year in the 17th Singapore National Swimming Championships in Singapore.
Last month, Makail was among teammates Jhnayali Tokome-Garap and Joanne Chen who represented the country at the 2023 Youth Commonwealth Games in Trinidad and Tobago. “I was coached by a lot of different coaches since growing up and from then onwards I started getting a lot of personal bests (PB) and got selected into the train-on squad to compete in international meets,” she said.
“My first ever international meet was in Singapore last year when I competed among best swimmers from other countries.
“From competing at my first championship, I got selected to compete at the Youth Commonwealth Games in the Caribbean.
“It was very tough competition at my first Commonwealth Games, having swum against a lot of fast swimmers but I got my PB in my events.”
Rihannah, who started off with the short sprints (25m, 50m LC), was now focused on the 100m and working towards achieving her 200m LC target.
“I am looking forward to the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands and I’m training harder to get new PBs or most possibly a medal.”
Makail is hopeful to represent PNG at the Commonwealth and Olympics in the future.
“For the future swimmers who aspire to represent PNG at the international level, never give up. Keep on swimming and keep going, you’ll get there.”