Athletes eyeing Games

By PATRICIA KEAMO
FOUR Papua New Guinea para-athletes have passed the qualification mark for the Paris Paralympic Games from Aug 28-Sept 8 and are awaiting confirmation of qualification from the world governing body – International Paralympic Committee.
PNG Paralympic Committee’s sports performance director Paul Bannister told The National that the four para-athletes Junior Dennis, Regina Edward, Herea Loi and Manega Tapari were from taekwondo and athletics.
Loi and Tapari recently won gold medals at the Oceania Taekwondo Olympics Qualification tournament in Solomon.
Para-athlete Morea Mararos, who competes in the F34 seated javelin, is also closing in on qualification after throwing 20.72m – just short of the 21m qualification mark at the recent Australian National Athletics Championship.
Bannister said although the para-athletes had passed the qualification mark for their respective events to be regarded as qualified for Paris, qualification entry for them into the Paralympic Games was not direct as for the able-bodied athletes qualifying for the Olympic Games.
“With Paralympics, there is a quota system that’s depending on the distance and how much you beat the qualifying bar, you’ll still need to wait for confirmation for the quota system which the International Paralympic Committee conduct,” said Bannister.
“Although there’s been four athletes now that have qualified through the qualifying distance or running the correct time, there still needs to be confirmation of the quota of whether that person can go and be selected in the Paralympics team.”
For the athletics pair who are awaiting allocation confirmation, Dennis will be competing in the F46 javelin event while Edwards specialises in discuss and short put F44 classification.
Dennis recorded a 46m throw in his event passing the 43m qualifying bar while Edwards passed the 7m mark in her event to record an impressive 8.48m.
For the taekwondo para-athletes Tapari (+65kg) and Loi (-70kg) won gold in their respective categories at the Oceania Olympic Qualifiers in Honiara early this month.
Bannister commended the PNG Taekwondo Federation including coach Edward Kassman for their work with the para-athletes including Tapari and Loi.
“In regard to Dennis, he’s got great potential, very dedicated, technical, short putter that’s qualified for Paris,” said Bannister of Dennis’ form.
“He has a good chance of continuing throwing not just for Paris but for the future (Paralympic Games), in fact all para-athletes will be in good shape to continue in the future.”
Bannister added that for Morea Mararos, he had performed quite well and may have qualified as well (pending confirmation) having thrown a distance more than 21m (qualifying bar) in a classification event last October in Honiara.
Mararos is back in Port Moresby preparing for his next event in Suva, the Oceania Athletics Championship, which is another qualifying event for Paris. Other athletes on the edge of qualifying in which the Paralympic Committee will make attempts to compete in Suva include Jerome Bung (seated javelin F57), Judah Gomoga (discuss) and Steven Abraham among others.
Bannister said they had the option of applying for a wildcard entry (universality places) for an athlete who had not qualified.
He added that Abraham had been given an opportunity to train in the Gold Coast while next month would see a few para-athletes travel to New Zealand for a lead-up training camp ahead of the Oceania meet in Suva.