Ryan will shine

Normal, Sports
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The National, Thursday 25th of September, 2014

 PAPUA New Guinea swimming great Ryan Pini will shine at next year’s Pacific

Games in Port Moresby, according to PNG Swimming Inc president Elizabeth Wells.

Wells made the prediction after the 32-year-old broke 11 national records at the recently completed Theodist National Short Course titles in Port Moresby from September 19-21.

“Ryan will shine at next year’s Pacific Games. Ryan’s got the ability to just blitz everybody. He’s never really stopped training and has been in the pool all year. He’s very process-oriented

and even though his times this year are a little bit outside his Noumea Games times, he’s just kept going,” Wells said.

Pini’s biggest competition will come from New Caledonia and Tahiti swimmers but Wells said Pini’s form had not tapered off since his peak at the 2012 Olympics.

“We don’t know how things will go on the day, but we focus on the process and the preparation he is undergoing for the events he’s in and he’ll be ready for the Games.” Pini’s events are the butterfly (50m and 100m), free style (50m and 100m) and backstroke (100m).

Pini took on a mentor-coach role at this year’s Commonwealth Games with the national swim team but has remained active in local and regional swim meets in 2014.  He swam at the McDonald’s Swimming Championships in Brisbane in August where he came third in the 50m backstroke (25.22 seconds) and 100m backstroke (55.01).

He is scheduled to swim at a local championship in Miami, Queensland, next month and the next six months will see him intensify his training as he looks to lead the swimming team at the Pacific Games.  Pini, who is the country’s most successful swimmer having won Commonwealth gold (100m butterfly) in Melbourne in 2006 and a silver medal in the same event at the Delhi Games four years later, will use the Port Moresby Games to draw the curtain on a career that has seen him ranked as one of the best in the world.