Athletics mourn icon

THE country’s athletics fraternity is mourning the loss of Elanga Buala who passed away at the age of 56 at her home in Lae, Morobe, on Thursday.
Buala was a former sprinter and one of the first women to represent Papua New Guinea in the 1984 Olympics in the United States (US).
She has won a number of titles in the national championships and her first international success was the 1983 Pacific Games in Samoa where she won gold in the 200m and 400m.
Having started her sporting career in volleyball, Buala transitioned to athletics in 1981 and competed in the national championships in Mt Hagen where she won the women’s 100m title.
She has won seven national titles in the 100m, 200m and 400m from 1981-1984 and has bagged 13 medals from the national championships throughout her career.
Between 1981 and 1984, Buala made most of her international appearances where she won seven medals – four gold, two silver and one bronze – all from the Pacific Games and Pacific Mini Games.
She made her international debut at the age of 17 years in 1981 where she represented the country in the Pacific Mini Games and won bronze in the 200m, silver in the 400m and gold in the 4x400m relay.
In the 1983 Pacific Games, Buala snatched four medals for the country, she won gold in the 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay, and silver in the 4x100m relay.
Apart from the Pacific Games, Buala also represented PNG in the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane (1982), the inaugural International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics Championship in Helsinki, Finland (1983), and the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Prior to the Olympics, Buala competed in a warm-up meet in California where she ran her fastest time in the 100m (12.22 seconds) which was a PNG record at that time until Barbara Ingiro edged it (12.19s) 10 days later in the Olympics.
Another record set by Buala in that same year was her time of 24.82s in the 200m which remained as the country’s record until Mae Koime’s 24.29s in the 2006 Oceania Championships.
Buala’s other national record was in the 400m where she finished with a time of 56.82s which remained until 1993 when Mary Unido’s 56.20s surpassed it.
Although she has passed on suddenly, Buala’s name will go down in the history of PNG athletics as one of the first local women to compete in the Olympics and set three national records at that level.
She will also be remembered as one of the iconic figures who set the foundation for PNG athletes.