She’s a comeback kid

By KYMLIE KARANI
PAPUA New Guinea netball veteran Kilala Owen is making a comeback – at age 31 and after four long years away from the game she loves.
“The 2015 Pacific Games is the ultimate. It is my aim,” Owen said yesterday.
The East New Briton who has been out of the scene since 2007 is in the Pepes train-on squad and ready to fulfil her netball dreams.
“I believe I have some unfinished business. I have more to give,” she said.
Owen was selected into the train-on squad after the 2012 National Championships in Lae, after returning to playing again in 2011 with the Sparrows in the Port Moresby Netball competition.
“I knew that was the only way to find my way back into the Pepes so I had no choice but to fly to Lae and play,” she said.
At 1.75m, the lanky defender said her long break was a good time for her to explore the other side of life.
Owen recalled her first experience when she made the national team in 1999 at the South Pacific Games in Guam.
“It was the best feeling ever because I had the honour of playing alongside PNG netball greats Mona Lisa Leka and the late Maryanne Walsh,” she said.
But playing in the top flight took its toll and in 2007 Owen felt she had to sacrifice netball for her studies.
The dynamic defender rose to prominence after she was scouted by Sparrows veteran and former international Julienne Leka during the first ever Private Companies Netball competition in 2005.
Leka then got Owen to play for her club, Sparrows, where she learnt a lot and has been playing ever since.
Owen said although she knew she was going to miss the sport, she was sure that she would get back at the right time.
After completing year 12 at Gordon’s Secondary School – in the nation’s capital in 2001 – she was accepted to pursue a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Papua New Guinea.
She completed her four years successfully, graduating in 2005.
“Even though I was itching to go back and play, I just kept on fighting those feelings. I always dreamt of playing for my country,” she said.
“Back then, we were ranked 11th in the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) rankings, which was awesome and all of us in the team then had the same goal of playing hard and one day would bring PNG in the top 10.
In 2007, Owen got a permanent job as a pharmacist at the St Mary’s Medical Centre.
From 2008 to 2011, she worked with the National Tuberculosis Programme (TB Dots) as the regional logistics coordinator.
Owen is doing her Master’s programme in medical science at the UPNG Medical and Health Sciences, doing background Pharmacy (research) but that won’t stop her from continuing her netball career.