PEOPLE
Shadrick puts off school to sprint
By ENAMYRA ANI
UPNG Journalism student
PACIFIC Games gold medalist Shadrick Tansi says he had seen his family struggle in tough times so he decided to turn to ways to supplement what they had.
The 20-year-old son of Eileen and Raymond Tansi grew up at Kwikila town in Central.
Young Tansi discovered his strength in 2016 during the Central inter-school carnival at Laloki Secondary School.
“In 2016 during our inter-school carnival, I came in first place in the men’s 100m sprint and clocked a time of 11.4 seconds, first in 200m in a time 22.6 seconds also first place in the 400m in 50.2 seconds.
“In 2018, I made improvements by coming in first place again and this time it was 10.8 seconds in 100m, 21.7 seconds in 200m and 48.1 seconds in 400m.
Shadrick from Morobe, Kerema and Bougainville started his education at Lae Betel Lutheran Elementary in 2006. In 2009 his grandparents Konie and Wasora Ganeki moved to Kwikila to teach at the Kwikila Vocational Center. He was enrolled at Ruatoka Primary School at Kwikila where he completed his grade eight in 2014. He was luckily to be selected to Kwikila Secondary School to do grades nine to 12.
Tansi completed grade 12 and unfortunately he didn’t make it in time for the most important day of his life, the graduation at Kwikila.
He pushed his luck in athletics and was part of the national team taking part in the men’s 200m and 400m relays.
“Because of my performance in athletics, I got selected by the National Sports Institute to start off with my trainings at John Guise Stadium and then to Goroka.
“I trained in Goroka for six months and from there we went to Kimbe for the final trials and I got selected into the team again.
“After that we went to Yokohoma, Japan for the World Relay and then to Thailand for the Thailand Open and to Singapore then came back to Port Moresby and then I went to Townsville for the Oceania. After my game at Townsville I went down to Samoa for the XVI Pacific Games.
“The biggest adventure was taking part in the XVI Pacific Games and running the men’s 400m relay and beating my old records and clocking a time of 47.8 seconds. And in the 200m I clocked 21.3 seconds. Those were my best times.”
He added that athletics was an individual sport that helped push the individual to become someone good.
“Athletics is a game that is not like other team sports where once you lose, it affects all the team members and arguments occur. When it comes to athletics, it’s just you. Once you lose you intend to build this stamina in you that you can do better than this and helps you push forward.”
Family support
Tansi expressed that it is because of his family he made it this far. His mum Eileen Tansi has motivated him when at times he felt down and has not given up on him and also his friend who has always helped in any ways that they could.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone in Kwikila for their support, my friends who had faith in me and believed in me as well as my families for working hard and giving me what I have now”.
“It too much; I could not thank you all enough for that. And I’m grateful for my friends who helped me in one way or another and also my grandfather and grandmother for they care and love they have for me”.
‘Kake’, as they call him at Kwikila where he grew up, is a well-recognised name. He loves to hang around with his friends and also apart from being an athletic player he also plays for a local rugby league team.
He plans to work hard in the national team so that he can be selected to go to the United States to train and play there as well as to get a scholarship to complete his studies.
“I just want to get a scholarship and get a good education, come back to PNG, get a job and then give back to my family all they have done for me, especially my mum and dad”.
Shadrick advises young potential sports men and women to be confident and be strong and fight for what they have.
“The road to success is very hard, once you sweat hard in the field, you won’t bleed a lot in the field. Success is yet to come; all you have to do is fight for it to get it. It does not come easy.”
Mesmerised by tranquil Tairuma Beach
By PAUL DOBOI
MY recent to Kerema town was very enjoyable but the sightseeing left me truly exhausted.
Apanaipi Bridge along the Hiritano Highway is where Central province ends and Gulf starts.
As you travel along the trans highway you will not miss the sight of the lake Kamu swamp, the friendly people of Kaintiba selling cooked garden foods and mustards and betel nuts and many more local food beside the highway and further towards Epo Village. This is where the bitumen ends. The rest of our journey was a rough muddy drive.
We started pushing and pulling due to a heavy downpour ahead of us until we reached Kerema town at around 9pm.
Very exhausted after the eight-hour trip from Port Moresby, I headed straight to the bedroom for the night’s rest.
Waking up the next morning, I could hear the sounds of the waves crashing onto the Tairuma Beach. Towel around the neck, I followed the track leading to the beach. Besides the track were lines of sago palms waking up from their deep slumber readily opening their arms to welcome and say hello to any stranger as I doubled my pace through them.
Oh wada wow! There it was the Tairuma Beach. I definitely wasn’t the first to be mesmerised by the tranquil beauty; many other people before me have experienced the same charm it weaves around them.
I just had to walk down the beach to feel the cold of the morning sand under my feet as the waves splashed on the beach as the coconut and sago leaves waved and swayed to the rhythm of the crashing waves on the beach whilst shouting, playing and laughing noises of the friendly and lovely children of nearby Rabia camp and Siviri village lulled my mind as I immersed myself into the surroundings putting aside matters of the world and of course my own home of Kuni.
Looking beyond the horizon was what they called it West Port of Gulf, Bluff Point, Mei and Uaripi villages. They looked nearer to me but yet they aren’t connected by road. They’re only reached by dinghies captained by locals themselves.
The afternoon of the day almost drove me to tears as I sat down on a log and watched the sun setting over the horizon of the western part of Gulf. A soft-hearted bloke will definitely burst into tears already. The nice shades of the surrounding and beautiful sunset rays camouflaging the long sandy beach and of course a bit of strong breezes blew my mind to the mountains of my home Kuni.
The sun disappeared behind the western part of Gulf province and faded in the sea as dark grew nearer. With a mind full of thoughts and a troubled heart, I headed back to my house.
It was only a short drive to Kerema from my home Kuni but I came away with a lot of stories to tell.