Gime bags gold in 400m

NCD’S Wala Gime cruised to the gold in 49.10 of the men’s 400m final yesterday capping off a successful outing for PNG track athletes at the Arafura Games.
Gime’s teammate Paul Pokana took bronze coming third in the race in 50.21 behind Australian Oliver Teale, who clocked 49.73.
Gime, a member of the national team, ran the fastest qualifying time of 49.32 to set up his final assault while Pokana’s 49.49 in the second qualifying heat was better than his final time.
In other track results, the PNG women’s 4x100m relay team of Sharon Kwarula, Nadia Bais, Priscilla John and Donn a Koniel won gold in their final in a time of 49.50 ahead of Australia (50.73) and Indonesia (51.81).
NCD men finished in fourth in a hotly contested 4x100m final with the first four finishers separated by just six hundreths of a second.
Anna Pius of PNG won bronze in the women’s 5000m clocking 19:23.12 behind Australians Emma Kraft (18:07.20) and Jodie Barker (18:37.71).
Meanwhile, in boxing on Monday, NCD  light welterweight Stanley  Emmanuel stopped his Indonesian opponent to advance to the medal rounds today.
The 21-year-old known by his boxing mates and friends as “Chicko” used his speed and straighter punches to hurt and confuse Indon Fredericko Soars before the referee intervened in the second round to stop the bout.
In basketball, PNG men lost to Torres Strait 68-65 on Sunday and fell to Macau 92-83 the following day before slumping to New Caledonia 76-41 yesterday.
In swimming, PNG finished a credible sixth – through the efforts of swimmers Jenixon Lim and Peter Pokawin – in combined team scores with Australia dominating nearly all pool events over three days.