PNG athletes deliver in Cairns

PNG missed out on the mens 4 x 100m relay yesterday at the Oceania Championships in Cairns through a botched baton exchange  but PNG made a good start with a clean sweep in the under 20 women’s 3,000m event.
PNG youngster Maria Kuanduma beat compatriots Dephanie Aito and Anna Pius with Solomon Islands coming in 4th.
In a strong performance Toea Wisil beat the Australian Sarah Busby  and Kiwi Rochelle Coster to win the 100m and qualified for world champs.
SprintersNelson Stone and Wala Gime qualified for the 400m final today.
The 100m finals took place last night with Stone missing out on the world championships by one one hundredth of a second. He ran 10.61 in his fourth race of the day.
Australian Liam Gander  ran 10.60.
Stone looked fantastic in the semi final where he ran 10.59, a personal best, but a slow start in the final left him too much to do.
In the men’s 5,000m, Kupsy Bisamo won silver behind Australian Jeffrey Hunt who over-lapped the  whole field.
Other runners for PNG included Sapolai Yao, Skene Kiage and Andipas Georasi who finished 4th.
Yao did not complete the race chosing instead to conserve his energy for steeplechase today.