Oceania YOG Trials in Sydney.
The 2nd. Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be held in Nanjing, China, in August 2014. To assist NOCs in deciding who should be entered for these Games, Oceania Athletics arranged Oceania Trials in Sydney recently (March 2014).
KAA Committee member Tonobwa Kaoten travelled with male sprinter Kimwaua Makin to these Trials. In his 100m. Heat, Kimwaua finished 8th. of the eight sprinters in a time of 12.09 secs. This was his first journey overseas and his first experience of using an 8-lane all-weather track. (See image attached.)
Judging from the image of the finish, the winner is likely to have broken 11 seconds which, for the Oceania islands, is a basic requirement for male sprinters hoping to advance in any competition.
Attendance at actual YOG ?
It is now up to Kiribati NOC to decide whether Kimwaua should be one of those to travel to Nanjing using the Olympic Universality system. However other sports on offer at the Games may make their own cases to KNOC to be represented in Nanjing. So time will tell whether Kimwaua will advance from these Trials.
Other opportunities for KAA athletes in 2014.
In company with Kimwaua, there will be other Kiribati athletes who will have several chances to travel this year. These include :- the Micronesian Games in Pohnpei in July; the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July; the World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA in July; and the Oceania Area Championships in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in June.
New machine-readable passports.
Earlier than expected, Kiribati Immigration have started to issue new machine-readable passports. The old documents were only valid until November 2015 anyway. Kimwaua is one of the first to receive such a document. However it is only valid for five years where the old one was valid for ten !
Other images.
There are two other rather dark images of Tonobwa and Kimwaua relaxing in Sydney.
Last Modified on 28/03/2014 09:12