Sprinters fairing well

FIVE Papua New Guinea track athletes at Cloud County Community College in Kansas, United States, capped off a successful indoor season last weekend by helping their teams to a third-place finish in the men’s and women’s divisions in the Junior College National Indoor Championships.
The scheduling of events made it difficult to run personal bests and the main objective was to score points for the team.
Ephraim Lerkin was in great form, improving on his national record in the 600m by winning his heat in one minute, 20.06 seconds.
However, he was unable to run faster in the final as it was run only 30 minutes after he had assisted his team to gold in the 4x800m relay in a time of seven minutes, 42s which broke the 40-year-old school record.
Shadrick Tansi and Emmanuel Wanga were part of the team that set another new school indoor record of three minutes, 12 seconds in finishing third in the 4x400m relay.
Isila Apkup had a successful meet despite missing out on the 60m final by a few thousandths of a second.
She went on to finish fourth in the 400m final after setting a personal best 56.63s in the heats.
Leonie Beu also secured a fourth-place finish in the 600m and the pair then assisted their 4x400m relay team to a third-place finish.
Attention will now turn to the outdoor season which is expected to kick off next Saturday and conclude with the National Outdoor Championships at South Plains College Texas from May 11-13.