Stone promises better 2014

 PAPUA New Guinea 400m national athletics record holder Nelson Stone is determined to do better this year.

After a poor 2013 season, Stone has set his sights firmly on burning the track with vengeance.

Since clocking 46.71 seconds at the 2012 London Olympic Games, 0.01 seconds off his national record (46.70 set in New Delhi in 2010), Stone (pictured) has experienced a slump in form.

In London, Stone’s time placed him 36th out of the 52 athletes who attended the Olympic Games. 

He finished sixth in his heat. 

With just over a year to go before the 2015 Pacific Games, the Central Province man wants to ensure he is competing at his best before his home crowd for the first time.

Speaking by phone from Brisbane this week, Stone said that missing out on the Pacific Mini Games in Wallis and Futuna through injury was a disappointment last year.

“On top of that I wasn’t able to achieve some of my goals I planned for last year,” he said.

“My goals this year are to do well in the Australian domestic season with the aim to do well at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland,” Stone said.

“2014 is all about proving a point, proving something,” he added. “Being away from my family has been hard and there are times when I hit the wall but I’m not a quitter and I certainly won’t quit now,” Stone said.

Stone said if he had an injury free season, the sky was the limit. 

The man from Tokarara, who began his sporting career as a taekwondo martial artist under the tutelage of father Jamuga, holds the 200m national record of 21.09 seconds that he set in Cairns in 2010.

The only positive time that Stone produced last year was the 21.98 seconds in the 200m at the Oceania Championships in Papeete, Tahiti.

Stone and a handful of others are considered as elite athletes.