Papua New Guinea’s three top athletes improving in respective competitions

PAPUA New Guinea’s top three horizontal jump athletes were all in fine form last weekend in their respective competitions.
Peniel Richard improved by 3cm on his outdoor national record in the triple jump, which was set in the 2019 Pacific Games, with a leap of 15.54m at the Texas Relays in Austin.
This follows on from his indoor record of 15.56m which was set in the Indoor National Championships two weeks earlier.
It was a great weekend for his West Texas A&M team whose top sprinter, Ghanaian Benjamin Azamati, caused a sensation by running 9.97 seconds in the 100m, which is the fastest time in the world this year.
Meanwhile, over at Colorado State University in Pueblo, Annie Topal started her 2021 season with a bang as she tripled jumped 12.87m, capping off a good consistent series of jumps.
Topal’s team did not participate indoors this season due to Covid-19 restrictions.
This was her first competition of the year.
Rellie Kaputin was also in action last weekend in the Brisbane Classic and secured valuable world ranking points with a fourth-placed finish, equalling her season’s best distance of 6.23m with the aid of a following wind of 3.0m.
Kaputin is ranked 52 in the world when the rankings are filtered to include a maximum of three athletes per country.
Her aim is to be in the top-60 by the end of the qualifying period.
She is now focusing on the Australian Championships in Sydney in two weeks’ time and will then have a break from competition to prepare for meets that are expected to be staged in Queensland during June.
With the Northern Hemisphere season just getting underway, a lot can change in the rankings in the next few months.
Toea Wisil is yet to compete this year.
She is preparing to head over to the United States soon.