Athletics eyes big events

ATHLETICS Papua New Guinea released the final version of its 2017 events calendar with the initial draft to be revised following the deferral of the 2016 PNG Games.
The focus is now on the PNG Games in March and the main domestic programme then being in the second half of the year.
“Experience has shown that our national championships needs to be at least six months apart from the PNG Games as the travel cost would otherwise be a problem for most teams,” secretary Philip Rehder said.
“This means we can schedule the national championships during the third term holiday and finalise our team for the Pacific Mini Games after the nationals.”
Regional Championships are scheduled for August and September in the lead up to the nationals.
Port Moresby is slated as the host next year but with the Rugby League World Cup around the same time it will depend on the availability of the Sir John Guise Stadium.
Strict new guidelines concerning participation in regional and national championships will be introduced in 2017 in an effort to overcome the problems encountered at a number of recent events including the 2016 National championships where officials were overwhelmed with late entries, resulting in delays to the programme.
Several finals were run in fading light at the championships which had an impact on the recording of results.
The recent annual general meeting considered this matter and resolved to seriously address it in 2017.
The 2017 Oceania Championships will be held in Fiji and will include an Under-20 division instead of the U18s as in recent editions.
“This will be a good opportunity to expose some of the young talent in the men’s sprints that emerged in 2016,” Rehder said. “We’ll be looking for strong performances at the PNG Games from these athletes.”
Leroy Kamau from East NewBritain, Jobie Kinzu from Madang and Michael Peni (ENB) were the standout performers in the U18 division.
APNG also took note of the performances of Cedric Tansi (Central), Andrew Posai (WNB), David Guka (Pom), and Damien Kotou (Manus).
Some intense competition is expected among these athletes at the PNG Games.
For PNG’s elite athletes, the Oceania Championships is a qualifying event for the World Championships in London.
Athletes, who win their event are deemed to have qualified for the World Championships – subject to restrictions in some field events and in all cases selection has to be endorsed by their national body.
APNG will also send a team to the IAAF World Relay Championships in the Bahamas in April to take part in 4 x 200m relays and the mixed 4 x 400m relay.
“It’s possible that our team could attend the Penn Relays next year as this event immediately follows the World Relays,” Rehder said.
“This would be an awesome experience for PNG athletes.”
The Penn relays is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the USA and has been held annually since 1895 at the University of Pennsylvania.
It regularly attracts over 15,000 participants from high schools, college and track clubs as well as international teams.
PNG will send its quota of one male and one female athlete to the Commonwealth Youth Games which will also be held in the Bahamas.
For athletics, participants must still be U18 on Dec 31, 2017.
Athletes targeted for this event will be notified early in the New Year.