Para lifter Harape makes Olympics

TIMOTHY Harape has become the first paralympic athlete to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.
He qualified when he bench pressed 155kg in the men’s para-powerlifting on Tuesday.
Competing in Group B, Harape started with 147.5 kilograms but had a “no lift” in his first attempt.
He succeeded with a good lift in the same weight in his second attempt and then lifted 155kg in his last attempt.
The Commonwealth Games has been a good experience for PNG’s young para-sports lifters.
“We are happy with our results as the team has done extremely well,” PNG Para-sports chairman, Bernard Chan said.
“The main idea was to have our young athletes gain the experience that can help build and develop them in their sport further,” he said.
The team also introduced female lifter, Regina Wala to the Games this year and she too put up a strong performance.
“With our female lifter, we wanted to encourage female lifters in in PNGPara-sports and we had to start somewhere.
“Regina was an exceptional pivot to start with encouraging similar young women in PNG to take up this sport,” Chan said.
The other two male lifters were Pope Gazave and Ziggy Satkurin who competed in Group C.
Gazave’s  bodyweight was less than all the other lifters in the competition but he pressed 97.5kg in his first lift before losing the other two lifts at 105kg.
This was a great experience for Gazave who has come straight from the village to compete at this level.
He lifted a total of 125.1kg to be ranked fourth.
Satkurin was also strong, pressing 105kg in his first attempt and 115kg in his second before missing out in his last lift at 120kg.
He lifted a total of 132.8kg to be placed fourth, ahead of Gazave.
Chan and team manager, Rosemary Mawe said the athletes had done themselves, their families and the country proud and they were especially thrilled for Harape who has made history for the sport para-powerlifting in PNG.