Richard equals national triple jump record

PENIEL Richard equalled Mong Tavol’s national record of 15.30m for the men’s triple jump during the Lone Star Conference Championships last weekend in Stephenville, Texas.
Richard’s leap was the highlight of a great weekend for the four Papua New Guinea athletes involved in the event, which saw teams from seven Texan NCAA division two universities competing in what was for all teams and most athletes their major meet of the year.
Those athletes who qualified will go to the national championships but for the teams, the conference is the big one.
Richard’s 15.30 jump came in the last round of the competition and earned him the silver medal, just 10cm behind the winner.
“Peniel said that he took off well behind the board so a further improvement seems likely,” Athletics PNG president Tony Green said.
Pacific Games athletics team manageress Sophia Marai said that it was wonderful to see Richard bouncing back from the injury that prematurely ended his participation in the Games.
Richard was stretchered off during the pole vault competition when a freak accident saw his arm broken in two places.
By then he had already won the silver medal in the triple jump and was confident of challenging for the men’s high jump gold.
Rellie Kaputin was in great form at the championships, winning two gold medals and helping her West Texas A&M team win their first conference title as they narrowly beat Adrine Monagi’s Angelo State team.
Kaputin once again showed her great competitiveness to win the long jump with the last jump of the competition after her team-mate Libby Strickland went 6.09m with her first jump and led right to the last round.
A following wind of 5mps assisted Kaputin greatly as she leapt 6.13m.
Monagi won the heptathlon gold but was disappointed at not being able to break Iammo Launa’s national record of 5037 points.
Her coaches pulled her out of the heptathlon high jump after she cleared 1.60m, directing her to save energy for other events.
Her final total was 5030 points.
Theo Piniau came away with a silver medal for the 4x400m relay and these four athletes are now all looking forward to the NCAA D2 national championships in Florida in two weeks time.