WNB athletics c’ships a success

A SUCCESSFUL PNG Air West New Britain athletics championships was staged at Sasi Muthuvel Stadium in Kimbe over the weekend.
With little competition around the country this year, Athletics Papua New Guinea (APNG) took the opportunity to fly in a number of targeted national squad athletes for the event to assist their preparations for the national championships which will be held next month.
The highlight of the weekend was a sensational 200m time of 21.15 seconds by Leroy Kamau, eclipsing the time set at the 2015 Pacific Games by his coach Nelson Stone which was at that time the fastest 200m recorded by a PNG athlete on home soil.
This followed a shock result in the 100m final the previous day when Kamau was upstaged by Wewak’s Emmanuel Anis who edged him by just 4/1000 of a second.
An examination of the photo finish film showed that Anis crossed the line in 10.695 seconds and Kamau 10.699.
PNG’s middle and long distance runners showed very good form with Israel Takap winning an exciting men’s 1,500m in four minutes, 12 seconds despite an unfortunate mix-up with the lap counting.

James Kuadua posted his best time of the season to win the 5,000m in 15 minutes, 56 seconds and Siune Kagl won the 3,000m in nine minutes, six seconds.
Monica Kalua was dominant in the women’s 1,500m and 3,000m.
It was, however, a weekend to forget for dual Pacific Games gold medallist Simbai Kaspar who made his own way to Kimbe, only to find himself way off the pace in the 1,500m and he clocked a disappointing time of over 10 minutes for the 3,000m.

APNG president Tony Green commended the local association, headed by Steven Tarado and coach Wilson Malana, for its commitment to implement programmes and run competitions in challenging circumstances.
“It’s great to see the local athletes making use of this wonderful track,” he said.

Large numbers of local athletes turned out to compete in many different age divisions.
Local junior sprinters Lenia Gilis, Danlyne siliwen and Graeme Bai caught APNG’s attention with strong performances in September at the New Guinea Islands championships in East New Britain.
All three were outstanding in their events in Kimbe with Gilis clocking an impressive 59.34 seconds in the 400m and Bai running 22.12 seconds in the 200m.
In the field events, the highlight was the long jump with 2019 Pacific Games representative Eldan Toti (6.94m) just getting the better of Morobe’s Steven Ray (6.80m).
Athletes are now turning their attention to the PNG Air national championships to be staged in Port Moresby from Dec 4-6.