Morobe native Wanga joins fellow athletes in the United States

MOROBE native Emmanuel Wanga joined four fellow Papua New Guinea athletes at Cloud County Community College in Kansas, United States, on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, from Finschhafen, first attracted attention in 2016 when he won gold in the 100m and 400m at the Melanesian Under-18 Championships in Suva, Fiji.
After graduating from Lae Secondary School, he trained fulltime with the national athletics team in 2019 in preparation for the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, where he was a member of the gold medal-winning 4x400m men’s relay team.
During the lead-up to the Games, he clocked 47.85 seconds for the 400m at the Thailand Open and also competed at the World Relay Championships and the Oceania Championships in Townsville.
“The opportunity for Emmanuel to take up studies at Cloud County was possible thanks to a combination of scholarship support from the college and assistance from the Morobe administration,” Athletics PNG president Tony Green said in a statement over the weekend.

Green thanked provincial administrator Bart Ipambonj and community development adviser Nane Tomola for their support.
Meanwhile, the five athletes had their first competition of the season last weekend at a low-key meet at Highland Community College in Kansas.
It was the first taste of indoor competition for Shadrick Tansi, Isila Apkup and Leonie Beu, and they delivered pleasing results.
Apkup clocked 7.22s in the 55m and 26.13s for the 200m while Tansi clocked 6.57s and 23.14s respectively for the same events.
Coach Drew Mahin said the athletes ran on a small track (only 160m) hence times were not directly comparable with times run on a 400m track with much wider curves.
Beu ran a time of one minute, 37.74s in the 600m.
Ephraim Lerkin is expected to join the athletes at their next competition in Topeka, Kansas, on Saturday.