Wisil in isolation following return from United States

PACIFIC Games sprint champion Toea Wisil is the latest Papua New Guinea athlete to be in isolation as part of the Covid-19 precautionary measures after she returned from the United States (US) last week.
Wisil was in the US since early March to participate in competitions there and also train under her coach Dior Lowry.
This was part of her lead-up preparations to bid for Tokyo Olympic Games qualification.
The Olympics have since been postponed to next year.
The competitions were cancelled and Wisil remained with Lowry in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, when the country, including PNG, and most of the world went into lockdown when the Covid-19 was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
Wisil could not do much while in the US because a lot of the gyms, fields and tracks were closed.
Working with Lowry, they set up a makeshift gym in a small storage room where they lived.
“I had to change my training to ensure that I maintained my fitness,” Wisil said.
She said it was the most challenging experience for her.
Wisil had to be flexible and adaptable as although plans were set for her travel, things did not quite work out and she had to be patient.
“Knowing I could not control the situation, I had to remain calm when things did not go as planned,” she said.
Fellow Team PNG athletes and weightlifters Morea Baru and Dika Toua, who also underwent quarantine in Port Moresby earlier, shared their experience and also provided some encouragement to Wisil.
“Do some exercises like you always do and most of all, enjoy your stay,” Baru said.
Toua said isolation was quite lonely so she encouraged Wisil to keep regular contact with family and friends during her stay. “Get as much sleep while you can, do your own exercises and enjoy watching a lot of television,” Toua said.
It took a while for logistics to be arranged for Wisil’s return as there were limited flights.
Approvals were needed for her to enter Australia and PNG and that took some time to happen.
One her way back, Wisil was stuck in Los Angeles when she was not allowed to board a flight back and she had stay with fellow Papua New Guineans there for almost a week.
“It is wonderful to have the support of your countrymen when you’re so far from home in the middle of a crisis and I thank those families for their great help,” she said.
Wisil arrived in Port Moresby on June 2 and went into her 14-day quarantine which will be completed tomorrow and she will be able to travel home to Goroka.
With limited space in the hotel room where she’s staying, Wisil is working on her mental skills as well as her core training and doing some other aerobic exercises.
She thanked the PNG Olympic Committee for facilitating her travel back to PNG, and Lowry and his family for looking after her in the US.
Wisil acknowledged the PNG and Australian governments for making it possible to return home.
The 32-year-old also thanked her family who continued to support her throughout the experience and also to God for strengthening her spiritually.