Air Niugini supports athletes with disability

NATIONAL flag carrier, Air Niugini, continues to support athletes with disability to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, in October this year.
Last week, Air Niugin provided five return airline tickets to four athletes and an official to participate at a two-day Australian selection trial held at Griffith University, Gold Coast campus, last weekend.
The athletes included Elias Larry, Stanley Luana and Peter Kelusa, who raced under the open and U20 combined events category.
Another athlete Timothy Harabe will compete in the powerlifting selection trials in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from July 25-31.
Air Niugini deputy general manager (Marketing) Dominic Kaumu presented the airline tickets to PNG Paralympic Committee chef de mission Dr Kefu Ma last week in Port Moresby.
Kaumu said Air Niugini, as the national airline and part of its community service obligation, was pleased to support the disabled athletes.
“The four athletes are representing our country and as the national airline, we are grateful to help them prepare for  future representative duties, in this case, the Commonwealth Games in October,” he said.
“This is not the first time Air Niugini has supported the disabled sports category.
“The airline has been very supportive with most of our representative duties since 2006, taking care of most of our travel costs to and from games venues, especially on routes where Air Niugini operates,” Dr Ma said.
The athletes and the official returned to Port Moresby on Sunday.
Although, they did not qualify for the selection trials, they recorded some personal bests of 12.50s.
Their previous timings were over 13s. The international requirement is 11:40s.
Dr Ma said the athletes would go into intense training for the next selection trial at the same venue on July 4.