Loi, Nime to carry flag for table tennis at Games

PAPUA New Guinea table tennis team left the country yesterday for the Gold Coast to take part in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The team are made up of Geoffrey Loi and Vero Nime (Para athlete) with Rea Loi as coach and team manager Annie Loi.
Coach Loi said the pair had been fine-tuning preparations in Port Moresby after returning from the Oceania Championships in Gold Coast two weeks ago.
“We’ve been training weekly and we’ve been getting good assistance from the High Performance Sport PNG,” Loi said.
“This is going to be the second time for PNG to compete in the Commonwealth Games in table tennis. The first time was in 2014 in Glasgow Scotland.
“In the Glasgow games we sent a full team but now according to the changes of policies depending on the ranking we had to ensure our athletes qualified.
“Geoffrey qualified for this event and Vero will compete in para table tennis competition.”
Nime from Eastern Highlands will also be the flag bearer for Team PNG at the Games.
“During the Oceania championships on the Gold Coast we had a good feel of the venue in which we will be playing at. “Vero didn’t get to compete there because there was no competition for her but she did manage to train at the venue.
“For Geoffrey, he did perform exceptionally in that competition so it was good that he got to get a feel as well before the actual games start.”