Good times at Grand Prix

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THE PNG Air Grand Prix Series that started on Friday saw impressive performances in the field and track events from more than 80 national squad athletes across six provinces.
This event was the first time, since the PNG Air National Athletics Championship, that some of the country’s best athletes compete against each other.
The highlight of the first two days of the event was the men’s sprints and long distance which saw some athletes clocking personal bests.
In the 100m race on Friday, upcoming East Sepik athlete Emmanuel Anis finished first with a time of 11.33 seconds while in second place was fellow Nest athletics club member Linus Kuravi (11.44s) and National Sports Institute’s (NSI) Paias Wisil finished third (11.45).
The 100m race was staged again on Saturday (due to wind on Friday) with Anis finishing first while Alphonse Igish and Jonathan Dende (from NSI) finished second and third respectively.
The men’s long and middle distance was very competitive as Pacific Games medallist Siune Kagl led most of the 1,500m race on Friday before Western’s George Yamak took over and finished first (four minutes, four seconds).
The women’s middle and long distance race saw East New Britain’s Monica Kalua and Mary Tenge dominate the 1,500m followed by Chimbu’s Aina Goir.
Athletics PNG president Tony Green told The National on Saturday that he was impressed with the athletes’ performances in the first two days.
“Jonathan Dende, from NSI, also ran a good 400m yesterday and Edna Baofab in the 400m hurdles for the girls,” said Green.
“We had the 100m races for the men and women, we’re using a new electronic gun and the sound is a bit different to what the athletes are used to, so it took a little bit of getting used to it, so we ran the race again for them today (Saturday).
“This morning (Saturday), we had a very good 5,000m race for the men which was won by Dilu Goiye in 15minutes, 31s – which is the best we’ve seen in a very long time in that event.
“That was another good race while led again by Siune Kagl, he led for the first 3km and then Dilu went past him and held on to the end. “Tenge in the women’s 5,000m, she ran a time of 19 minutes, 43s which is good at this stage.
“So overall, (we saw) quite some good results.
“Monday (today) will be the last day, we’ll be running 100m again and 400m and 3,000m for both men and women.
“This is the first time they’ve all come together since the nationals.
“We’re hoping to do the same thing again in Kimbe (three-day series) during the third-term holiday and then we’ll have the national championships at the end of the year.
“With the programme in the third-term holiday, we’ll probably combine that with the New Guinea Island championships.
“There will also be the Southern championships here in Port Moresby probably towards the end of August.”