Wisil wins 100m
The National, Monday 15th April, 2013
TOEA Wisil is the first Papua New Guinean to win an Australian Athletics title after she won a closely contested 100m final in Sydney on Saturday.
The likes of Takale Tuna and Mowen Boino have come close.
Toea herself has won the Under-20 Championships but not an open title and Lillyanne Beining won the U18 heptathlon in 1991 or 1992.
After comfortably negotiating the first round on Friday in 11.65s, and registering a quick 11.47s in the semi-final, Wisil held off a strong challenge from Ashley Whittaker of Victoria to breast the tape in 11.49s.
She finished ahead of Whittaker (11.53s) and Margaret Gayen of South Australia third in 11.83s.
Wisil missed out on claiming the sprint double yesterday when she came second in the 200m final behind Victorian Monica Brennan.
Wisil ran 23.70s while Brennan’s time was 23.41s.
The Jiwaka lass did post the fastest qualifying time of 23.53 but could not back up in the final.
The next major event for Wisil will be the Oceania Championships in Tahiti from June 3-5 .
Winning an Oceania title will give Wisil automatic entry to the World Championships in Moscow from August 10-18.
However coach Sharon Hannan is confident that Wisil can run the qualifying times in the 100m (11.36s) and 200m (23.30)s.