Wisil tipped to carry flag

NATIONAL track darling, Toea Wisil is tipped to be the country’s flag bearer at the London Olympic Games opening ceremony in nine days.
Wisil, who has been consistent over the past four years, is one of the better known female athletes in the country.
She dominated the Noumea Pacific Games last year, winning gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m races to notch her name in Papua New Guinean sports annals as one of our most successful sprinters.
The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games saw the Jiwaka native make the final of the women’s 100m, a first for a PNG woman.
The 24-year-old featured prominently in Australian state and national championships earlier this year, finishing in the top three in the 100m behind the likes of Australian 110m hurdles gold medal favourite Sally Pearson and Melissa Breen.
With Team PNG scheduled to officially announce the name of the flag bearer today, that the honour is most likely to go to a female athlete, with swimmer Ryan Pini having carried the national colours four years ago in Beijing, China.
The other contenders for the honour are Taekwondo’s Theresa Tona and swimmer Judith Meauri, who is the youngest female athlete in the contingent at 20.
Tona looms as a strong candidate after being one of the first to qualify for the Games.
Weightlifter and 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Dika Toua led the contingent at the 2004 Athens Olympics.