Five named for Olympics

WITH less than 40 days before the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, five more athletes have been confirmed to represent Papua New Guinea next month.
Sailing siblings Teariki and Rose-Lee Numa have already qualified, which now brings the number to seven athletes confirmed for the July 23-Aug 8 global showpiece event.
The latest athletes to be confirmed are weightlifters Dika Toua and Morea Baru, lone boxing contender John Ume along with swimmers Judith Meauri and Ryan Maskelyne.
Veteran weightlifter and Commonwealth gold medallist Toua secured her place on merit and will create history by being the first female weightlifter to compete in five Olympic Games.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Baru also qualified on merit through the Oceania continental placing.
Both were the top-ranked athletes in their respective categories in Oceania when the qualification period ended last Friday.
Toua will be competing in the women’s 49kg division and is scheduled to compete on July 24 while Morea will be competing in the Men’s 61kg category on July 25.
Both are training under their long-time coach Paul Coffa at the new Oceania Weightlifting Institute in Melbourne since leaving PNG last month.
Weightlifting is now the second PNG sport to have qualified their athletes through the continental quota, apart from sailing which already have Numa siblings who will be competing in the men’s laser and women’s laser radial events.
The laser competition will take place at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour, beginning on July 25 and will have five race days before the Aug 1 final.
Pacific Games gold medallist Ume is the fifth athlete to have been confirmed this week after he was offered a tripartite invitation for the lightweight (57-63kg) division.
Tripartite places are only offered to certain individual sports and events (one per event) and is only available to 92 other national Olympic committees, of which PNG is one.
The International Olympic Committee Tripartite Commission, in consultation with the respective international federations, makes the decision on who will be offered a tripartite invitation based on past performances.
Swimming also confirmed their two athletes to take up the universality placings with Olympian Judith Meauri selected for the female place and Ryan Maskelyne selected for the male spot.
Universality places are offered to national Olympic committees that do not have athletes who have qualified on merit.
Meauri will compete in the women’s 50m freestyle event and is on a Federation internationale de natation (Fina) scholarship in Thailand, and will travel directly to Tokyo from there. She is scheduled to swim on July 30.
Maskelyne will become the latest Olympian and he will compete in the men’s 200m breaststroke on July 27.