Para-athletes qualify for Tokyo Games

By PATRICIA KEAMO
TWO Papua New Guinea para-athletes have qualified for the Tokyo Paralympic Games which will be staged in August, according to an official.
PNG Paralympic Team chef de mission Susanne Sere told The National that Morea Mararos and Nelly Leva had qualified through the World Paralympic Athletes (WPA) representation slot and the universal wildcard qualification respectively.
She said despite the Covid-19 challenges, the pair had resumed training in February at PNG High Performance Sport under coaches Jackie Travetz and Peter Pulu.
“Due to the travel restrictions amid Covid-19, we were unable to attend competitions for them to qualify,” Sere said.
“But because of their results from the Pacific Games, (Queensland State) Championships and Arafura Games, they were able to qualify.
“Because of those past events and the submissions that were made with the classification details, they qualified through the minimum entry standard.”
Sere said the Paralympic committee would sort out a few things following the pair’s qualification before their team of four (Mararos, Leva, Sere and Travetz) travelled to Tokyo on Aug 21.
“The confirmed date of travel is Aug 21, we’ll arrive in Tokyo on Aug 22,” Sere said.
“The the athletics competition starts on Aug 27 (in which Mararos and Leva will compete) but the Paralympic Games itself opens on Aug 24.” Oceania javelin bronze medalist Mararos competed in the 2019 Apia Pacific Games in Samoa and the World Paralympic Championships in Dubai.
He will be competing in javelin, shot put and discus.
Leva’s last international duty was last year’s Queensland State Championships where she recorded 18.2m in javelin.
This will be their first Paralympic Games and the pair are training five to six days a week in preparation for their field events in Tokyo.