Wisil on course for Olympic qualification

TOEA Wisil was in sensational form at the Adelaide Track Classic last Saturday. 
Despite  a headwind of 1.4m per second, Wisil clocked 11.67 seconds in the 100m to finish third behind hot favourite Sally Pearson (11.32) and  Charlotte Van Veenendaal (11.60).
Wisil’s time was the same as her effort at a meet in Wujiang in China last year.
Conditions were even tougher in the 200m shortly afterwards, with a 3.6m headwind, but the noumea Games star was still able to run under 24 seconds.
The race was again won by Pearson, in a time of 23.11 with Van Veenendaal second in 23.78  and Wisil third in 23.83.
The time was a hundredth of a second beter then her time in the Gold Coast last year.
Athletics PNG president Tony Green said Wisil had been invited to Adelaide by Athletics Australia to provide competition for the best Australian sprinters. 
“This was the second of five major meets and followed on from the Brisbane Track Classic,” Green said.
“Toea’s next outing will be in Perth on Feb 11 and if she maintains her form she will be invited to the final two meets in Sydney and Melbourne”.
Wisil moved from Brisbane to the Gold Coast in last November and now trains with 2011 International Association  of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Athlete of the Year Pearson under the IAAF high performance programme for Oceania.
She is aiming to qualify on merit for the London Olympics and to do so she needs to run a time of 11.38 in the 100m or 23.30 in the 200m. 
If PNG has no qualified athlete in track and field it may still select one male and one female under the universality rule which is designed to ensure that every country in the world is represented at the Games.
Veteran hurdler Mowen Boino will be in action again this weekend in Hobart, Tasmania, before moving on to Perth in Western Australia.
Three time Pacific Games 400m hurdle champion Boino made a good start to his campaign with a time of 51.78 at the Hunter Classic last week to place second behind his current training partner Brendan Cole.
Like Wisil, Boino will be aiming to perform well in Hobart and Perth in order to secure invitations to Sydney and Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Nelson Stone made a cautious start to his campaign, running very conservatively for the first half of his 400m race in Brisbane on Saturday before powering home to a very fast finish in 48.61.
He will be aiming to improve considerably on this time over the next two weeks to earn an invitation to Sydney.
The Australian Athletics Tour concludes in Melbourne on March 3 where the programme includes the IAAF World Challenge and selection trials for the Australian team for London.