Wisil, Dell and Apisah girls receive Go for Gold rewards

TEAM PNG sponsor Digicel continued payments to gold medal winning athletes from the 2011 Pacific Games with track stars Toea Wisil and Salome Dell and tennis ace Marcia Tere Apisah being the latest to receive their payments.
Toea, who is based in Brisbane, was in the country and received her payment at the Digicel head office on Wednesday.
She claimed K6,000 for the five gold me­dals she won in 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay during the 2011 Pacific Games.
The 23-year-old from Jiwaka said: “I am happy to have claimed this payment as this is the first of its kind for me and such a reward motivates sports people and makes them feel that they can get more out of what they do.” 
Toea also collected payment (K3,750) for fellow track champion Salome Dell who is in Australia.
Vera Tere Apisah, mother of tennis champions Abigail and Marcia Tere Apisah was also present to claim payment on behalf of her daughter, Marcia, who is currently studying in Fiji.
Marcia and elder sister Abigail took out gold in the tennis doubles during the Pacific Games and securing K3,000.
When asked how she felt about her daughters achievements, Apisah said: “It is great that Digicel has come up with these payments to award and recognise such efforts and also set something for sports men and women to work towards. I am proud of my daughters for their efforts.”
Abigail is currently in the US on a tennis scholarship.
Digicel PNG operations director Lorna McPherson said: “Digicel is passionate of its support to Team PNG in partnership with the PNG Sports Federation and we are more than delighted to continue our Go for Gold payments to athletes and we congratulate them for their achievements.”
The Digicel Go for Gold incentive programme was set to rewarding gold medal-winning athletes K1,500 per gold medal, with teams that achieve the highest honour sharing a K3,000 payment.
The Digicel Go for Gold programme saw K82,500 in payments to reward athletes who won gold medals and contributed to putting PNG third on the Pacific Games medal tally.