Champion: Why was I turned away?

 A SIX-time Papua New Guinea 60kg weightlifting champion could not hold back his tears when he fronted up at The National office in Port Moresby on Saturday claiming he was turned away by security at the Sir John Guise Stadium before the Pacific Games opening ceremony.  

Johnson Hewali, 61, and from Koroba in Hela, said proper awareness should have been carried outside Port Moresby  and remote areas, on the arrangements for tickets at venues.

He said he did not want to miss the ceremony.

He said he sold his pig for K1500 to pay for his airfares from Tari to Port Moresby on Friday to see the opening.

“They (security and volunteers at gates to stadium) don’t have an itinerary, they don’t have maps to show me where to go to purchase tickets, why not?

“I want to take back something, maybe a story perhaps to tell my people back in the village on what the events were like.

“If I am lost then it means worse for other ordinary Papua New Guineans from outside Port Moresby to at least see and have a feel of the biggest event in the country.”

Hewali said he won gold in the 1991 Oceania Championships and in 1993 took silver in the Pacific Championships in Brisbane, Australia.

Last year he received a Meritorious Community Service (MCS) award from Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio for his services to the Hela community for encouraging fitness training.