Team PNG’s preparations for Tokyo Paralympics promising

By ROBINSON LEKA
TEAM Papua New Guinea’s preparations ahead of next year’s Paralympics in Tokyo look promising with the rise of 100m sprinter Steven Abraham.
The Pacific Games silver medallist and his coach Peter Pulu recently returned from a Para-athlete workshop in Japan with their sights set to improve on a bigger stage, the Paralympics.
“Steven is one of the best Paralympic sprinters in the country and the Pacific,” Pulu said.
“So for us, it was good to be part of the workshop and end-of-year camp ahead of next year’s Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
“There were some athletes from Africa and Asia plus some other Pacific Island countries who have the potential of qualifying for Tokyo 2020.
“We went there to train and see where our weakness were and what we needed to do with the help of professional coaches from the United States, France, Australia and Japan.
“Since Steven is a sprinter, I discovered that we needed to work more on his strength, power and mental toughness because it’s more demanding when you are running against all the big guns around the world.
“By the end of this year, I want him to run some very fast times before the World Championships in Dubai.
“We’re not expecting anything special from him but we want to work on where we want to be and what times we want to get before the Paralympics.”