PNG win seven golds

WEIGHTLIFTERS and paralympians won medals over the course of competition at the Arafura Games this week bringing PNG’s total to 28 medals with seven golds.
Female weightlifter Hitolo Dogodo from Hanuabada won a silver medal in the 53kg class.
She snatched 58kg and cleaned 75kg for a total of 133kg yesterday on the first day of competition.
PNG’s other medal was a bronze medal effort by  Gloria Kimbu also in the 53kg class.
She snathched 57kg and cleaned 71kg for a totla of 128kg behind compatriot Dogodo.
The Hanuabada lass also won gold in the South Pacific championship and  a silver in the Oceania championship.
Both weightlifting events were run jointly with the Arafura Games.
In other weightlifting news, 14-year-old Fred Oala missed out on an Arafura medal in his 56kg class but  won the youth and junior awards.
Meanwhile, the PNG paralympic team returned strong performances to finish with several medals.
Joyleen Jeffrey, who is vision impaired, competing in the T12 won gold in the women’s 100m ambulant race on Monday.
She ran a new personal best of 14.27.
First time competitor Thompson Ninkama, an intellectually disabled athlete, won a gold medal in the T20 5000m and a bronze medal in the T20 800m.
Paralympic team manager Sophie Tuna said the results were very pleasing and added that other paralympians recorded personal bests in competition.
“We are very happy with the effort from all our athletes, especially Joyleen and Thompson.
“Several of our athletes also set PBs with Elias Larry (T37) and Peter Kelusa (T46) finishing fourth and fifth in their races,” Tuna said.
Paralympic powerlifter Timothy Harabe (75kg) won a bronze.
In cricket, the PNG Hebou Hammers yesterday beat the Northern Territory High Performance Youth XI by nine runs in their Twenty20 encounter while the Air Niugini Crocs scored a six wicket victory over the Australian Defence XI.
The Crocs, Cricket PNG’s development team, are on top of the Arafura ladder with five wins from five games and are strong medal chances while the Hammers are on fourth spot with two wins from five agmes in the six-team competition.