Marai plays lone hand

SPRINTER Nazmie Lee Marai will be Papua New Guinea’s lone representative at the World Indoor Championships this weekend in Birmingham, England.
Athletics PNG president Tony Green said Marai, who won gold in the 100m (10.84) and 200m (21.66) at the last year’s Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu, had been picked from their elite squad last year and would look to improve on his Mini Games times as he prepares for the Commonwealth Games.
“Nazmie left for the UK with a group of Oceania athletes today (yesterday),” Green said of the 25-year-old, who is based on the Gold Coast.
Green clarified that APNG was limited in their selection of athletes for the indoor championships with their focus on sprinters while the rest of the athletics team trained and prepared in Australia and the United States.
“With the indoors events, it’s limited. You don’t have the full range (of events) so we were always going to pick a sprinter and Nazmie was the one we chose,” Green said.
Green, pictured, said APNG had considered the country’s other elite track athletes but said those in the US would not be able to take the time off their college programmes.
“Unfortunately, the indoor championships clashed with our US athletes’ college schedules so we couldn’t consider any of them however our top athletes are preparing for the Commonwealth Games.”
He said another youngster in 21-year-old Benjamin Aliel was unlucky to have missed out on selection after winning gold in the 400m (48.01) at the Port Vila Games.
“Benjamin Aliel won gold in the 400m at the Mini Games and would have been considered for the indoor champs however initially we thought we’d add him to our Commonwealth Games squad after the Mini Games but unfortunately we missed the accreditation deadline,” Green said.
Green agreed that Aliel would have other opportunities in the future to represent the country at major world events and just needed to stay focused on his training and competing at national and regional meets.
Meanwhile, Green said APNG released their 2018 calendar of events this week with more focus on domestic programmes and much less overseas travel than in recent years.
Apart from the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April, which will feature 11 PNG athletes (including one para athlete), there is the Melanesian Championships in May which will be attended by a similar number.
PNG is also likely to be represented by only one or two athletes at the World Junior Championships in July and the Olympic Youth Games Athletics in October.
“Attention is now being turned towards planning for the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa and the PNG Olympic Committee Workshop this weekend is timely,” Green said.
“The Melanesian Championships will be held in Vanuatu from May 9-11 and we’ll only send a small team due to funding constraints.
“Last year we had some funding assistance to prepare our team for the Mini Games and were able to send a large team to the Oceania Championships in Fiji.
“This year we have nothing like that so we are focussing on providing international experience to promising new athletes whom we are targeting for next year’s Apia Games.
Green said looking towards Samoa APNG had to identify the weaknesses in their squad and target athletes who would strengthen the team in those areas.
The Melanesian Championships also serves as the qualifying competition for the Youth Olympic Games this year.
Although the PNG Athletics quota is determined by the PNG Olympic Committee those athletes still have to attend the qualifying event.
The national championships will be held in Port Moresby from July 21-23 and in setting the date athletics officials were mindful of the build up to APEC.
“We thought it best to bring forward the event from the third term school holiday for two reasons,” said Green. “One is the potential disruption with Port Moresby getting ready for the APEC summit and secondly many athletes will be preparing for national exams early in October so September is not a good time for them to be travelling to Port Moresby.”
Regional Championships have again been scheduled for the Highlands (June 23-25 in Goroka); Southern Region (Sept 17-18 in Port Moresby) and the New Guinea Islands (Sept 21-23).
The venue for the NGI event is yet to be confirmed but is likely to be at in Kimbe, West New Britain.
Green stressed that athletes who wanted to be considered for the Pacific Games next year would be expected to compete in domestic competitions in their respective centres.
“We want to see consistent performances over a period of time and we are moving away from the practice of selecting athletes on the strength of one very good performance at a national championships.
“We have occasionally been let down by athletes who fail to maintain their form after being selected.” Green said the athletics team for the Commonwealth Games would be announced today now that the process of confirming the team with the PNGOC was complete. Athletics PNG calendar of events: 2018 – March 2-4 Victorian Championships (Melbourne), March 1-4 IAAF World Indoor Championships (Birmingham, UK), March 17 Grand Prix (Sydney), March 28 Queensland Track Classic (Brisbane); April 8-15 Commonwealth Games (Gold Coast, Qld); May 9-11 Melanesian Championships (Port Vila, Vanuatu); June 23-25 Highlands Momase Regional Championships (NSI, Goroka); July 1 Gold Coast Marathon/Half Marathon/10Km run (Gold Coast), July 10-15 World U20 Championships (Tampere, Finland), July 21-23 National Championships (Port Moresby); Sept 17-18 Southern Region Championships (Port Moresby), Sept 21-22 New Guinea Islands Regional Championships (Kimbe, WNB); Oct 6-18 Olympic Youth Games (Buenos Aires, Argentina); 2019 – January National Squad Training Camp (NSI, Goroka); June 25-28 Oceania Championships (Townsville, Qld); July 15-19 Pacific Games (Apia, Samoa); Sept 28 to Oct 6 IAAF World Championships (Doha, Qatar).