Swimming set for c’ships

Sports

By MARTHA DERUAGE
WITH two weeks to go before Papua New Guinea Swimming Incorporated hosts the 2018 Oceania Swimming Championships (June 25-30), Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited has decided to back the event with K50,000.
The event is expected to involve more than 200 of the region’s best swimmers from 16 countries including Australia and New Zealand.
PNG swimming all-time great Ryan Pini thanked the national oil and gas company for their support at press conference on Monday.
“I would like to thank the Kumul Petroleum Holdings for their support as we are only two weeks away from the Oceania Championships and the support is very much appreciated,” Pini, who retired from competitive swimming after the 2015 Pacific Games, said.
“The event is a great opportunity to showcase our facility that was built for the 2015 Pacific Games, and present competition for our young swimmers who will competing against swimmers from countries like Australia and New Zealand.”
Pini said hosting the event came was a goal of PNG Swimming.
The 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist said he was proud to be part of the event’s organising committee and was keen to see PNG’s next generation of swimmers rise to the challenge.
Team PNG has selected 24 swimmers to represent the country with eight from Lae and one based in Australia while the rest were in Port Moresby.
The one-week event is from June 25-30 with the majority of events to be at the Taurama Aquatic Centre and two in Fairfax Harbour, Port Moresby.
Pini said there would be two open water events and four days swimming in the pool.
“It’s a great opportunity for the younger generations to be part of that, to help them develop into better swimmers.”
KPHL business planning manager Garry Mazewin said the company was proud to be part of the regional event.
“The Oceania Championships will be exciting to watch and some Oceania records should be broken,” Mazewin said.