Wisil wins sprint double

TOEA Wisil won the sprint double at the Australian national championships in Sydney at the weekend, clocking 11.42 seconds to win the 100m comfortably and 23.76 seconds on the 200m into a stiff headwind.
The 28-year-olds personal bests in both events are 11.29 in the 100m which she ran at the Oceania championships in Suva, Fiji, last year and 23.46 in the 200m which she clacked in Brisbane in 2012.
The sprint double means the Jiwaka woman is the best female sprinter in the Oceania region – an unofficial title that some have had her owning for several years now.
Her victory in the 200m yesterday when she upstaged the pre-race favourite and Olympic semi-finalist Ella Nelson of New South Wales was one of the talking points of the Championships.
It capped off a memorable domestic season for the Papua New Guinea record holder and she can now look forward to moving on to higher levels of competition in Europe in July.
Wisil was the clear favourite for the 100m but her 200m victory was unexpected, especially as she had finished second to Nelson in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, just three weeks earlier.
The signs were there however in the way Wisil achieved her 23.13 second PNG record that Nelson was in her sights and  was her dogged determination that proved decisive in Sydney.
Wisil is noted for her explosive starts but not so much for being a great finisher and she was again leading coming into the home straight.
This time however she was not going to let anyone get past her and she fought all the way to the end for a victory that was, in the end a decisive one.  With a headwind of 2.4metres per second the times were not fast, so there was no world championships qualifying time.
However Wisil had the satisfaction of winning both the 100m and 200m at the biggest meet on the Australian domestic calendar, a very significant achievement indeed.