Kimbe event to go on air

THE PNG Air National Track and Field Championships in Kimbe, West New Britain, will be live-streamed this weekend, thanks to support from Oceania Athletic Association.
Athletics PNG is teaming up with PNG Buzz to live-stream the event, which kicks off at 3.30pm today and continues through tomorrow and Sunday.
As expected, participating numbers will be less than normal due to the financial situation affecting most provinces and the interruptions to programmes this year due to the Coronavirus.
The National Capital District will be represented by 16-member Team Nest and one independent athlete Salome Yaling.
Small teams of less than 10 are also confirmed from Lae, East New Britain, New Ireland and National Sports Institute (Goroka), with Chimbu and East Sepik working against time.
In addition, there are about 30 national squad athletes and a team of 70 from West New Britain.
President Tony Green thanked PNG Air for its ongoing support as well as Team PNG sponsor Kumul Consolidated Holdings whose timely support greatly assisted with the considerable expense of flying the national squad athletes and key technical officials to Hoskins.
“Given the difficulties that provincial teams are facing at this time, it was vital that we facilitated travel for the national athletes to ensure a quality competition,” he said yesterday.
All of the men’s track events are expected to be very competitive, as will be the middle and long distance events for women.
The men’s long and jumps, and javelin will also be keenly contested, however, very few participants are expected in the remaining field events.
Arriving in Kimbe yesterday, Toea Wisil will compete in the 100m, 200m and 400m.
With PNG’s other elite sprinters overseas, the Pacific sprint champion won’t be seriously challenged, but she will be using the championships to assess her preparedness for overseas events next year.
The Grand Prix series last week highlighted some emerging talent in the men’s and women’s track events, including West New Britain’s Patricia Kuku and Yaling.
There were also several impressive male sprinters, including Chabbie Solomon, Terrence Talio, Jonah Theo and Paias Wisil.
The men’s long distance events will see strong competition in the 5,000m and 10,000m between Dilu Goiye and Siune Kagl with Wilford Baia, George Yamak and Abel Siune adding quality to the 5,000m.
The women’s 1,500m and 5,000m should also see some good competition with several athletes in contention, including Scholastica Herman, Mary Kua, Aina Goir and Ongan Awa.
The men’s 1,500m has been the event with the most quality and depth recently.
And with some athletes opting for the longer events, this one is likely to see local favourite Aquila Turalom and Abel Siune challenging George Yamak for gold.