Richard sets records

TEAM Papua New Guinea athlete Peniel Richard achieved a rare distinction of setting two national records in one day over the weekend.
Competing in the Lone Star Conference Championships at his home ground at West Texas A&M in United States (US) on Sunday, Richard won the triple jump competition by some margin with a 15.59m effort, an improvement of 5cm on his own national record.
He followed this up later in the day with a long jump of 7.26m to improve his record by 3cm.
It was a great weekend for the men’s team as they won the championships for the first time in the history of the programme, with the highlight being a thrilling 20.13 seconds in the 200m by Ghanaian sprinter Benjamin Azamati who has now broken the division two all-time records in the 100m (9.97s) and the 200m.
Meanwhile, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, national sprint champion Toea Wisil was battling adverse weather conditions in the second competition of her US programme. After clocking 11.98s in the heats of the 100m, the final was delayed for more than an hour by a thunderstorm and the temperature dropped to 13 degrees.
Wisil clocked a wind-aided time of 11.84 (+3.2) in the final.
This is a big week for the five PNG athletes at Cloud County Community College who have arrived in Levelland, Texas, for the Junior College National Championships which start this morning (PNG time).
First up will be Ephraim Lerkin in the 400m hurdles at 9.15am followed by Leonie Beu, Isila Apkup and Emmanuel Wanga in the 400m heats.
Competition will be intense in the men’s division with 29 runners in the heats and only the eight fastest runners going to the final.
Apkup will also contest the 100m heats tomorrow.
Wanga is expected to be joined by Shadrick Tansi in the 4x400m relay and the two PNG women will feature in both relays.