Gold for Steven

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The National, Tuesday, May 10, 2011

PNG athletics development squad member Eunice Steven bagged the country’s first gold medal on Saturday in the women’s long jump with 4.99m effort while PNG triathlon champion Tim O’Sullivan picked up a bronze on Sunday at the Arafura Games.
Overall PNG are in seventh place on the medal tally with six medals while  host Australia, including all its state teams combined, lead the medal count with 179 medals.
For the PNGAU team in Darwin, female track athletes Tina Tuna won silver in the open women’s 800m clocking a personal best of 4:50.3 while Donna Koniel qualified fastest for the 400m final today in 57.71 seconds.
Steven, 26, was commended by PNG Atheltics Union president Tony Green for her dedication.
“She took part in the heptathlon during the 2007 Samoa Games even though she was not expereinced but she kept at it and is very dedicated so we’re giving her all the support,” Green said.
O’Sullivan was also in good form in the male 35 and over category finishing behind Australia’s Gavin Wickham (gold) and Troy Ibbott (silver) in a time of 1’57:45.5.
PNG Triathlon Association president  Steven Sallun said this was a promising sign for PNG triathletes at the Noumea Games in August.
“We are on target for a medal come the Noumea Games later this year,” Sallun said.
Another triathlete Leka Kila was denied a silver medal in the 20-24 category after being disqualified for technical error.
In other news, Cricket PNG’s two teams to the Arafura Games got their campaigns off to winning starts on Sunday with the Air Niugini Crocs beating Northern Territory development XI and Cricket Australia’s Indigenous XI in Twenty20 fixtures while the PNG Hebou Barramundis crushed Malaysia but were upset by Australian Defence Force XI.