Utu to host 300-plus athletes at meet

 UTU Secondary School in Kavieng is gearing up for a large number of vistors today and tomorrow for the New Guinea Islands Regional Athletics Championships. 

The majority of athletes (110) arrived in the New Ireland capital  yesterday including almost 50 primary school students and 20 secondary school students from Kokopo.  

It was a long day for the students with heavy rain in the morning delaying their boat journey from Kokopo to Namatanai by almost five hours. 

Visitors also include  a national open and junior squad with seven athletes from Simbu, three from Goroka five from Lae, six from Port Moresby and 20 from Kokopo. 

These athletes will use the Kavieng meet as a lead-up to the National Championships in Kokopo from July 12 to 14 .

They have joined approximately 200 students from Kavieng, Namanatai and New Hanover at the championships.

There are teams of around 40-50 athletes from Utu Secondary, Namanatai and Team New Ireland among other smaller groups. 

The event will get underway  between 3pm and 4pm today with the open men’s 800m heats which is open to Under-18s;  heats in the 400m and finals for the 3,000m for open men and women. 

Nestle PNG through its Milo brand is supporting the regional championships and national championships.