Teams from Manus , East New Britain , Kimbe , Bialla , Namatanai and Kavieng participated in the New Guinea Island Regional championships at Utu Secondary School , Kavieng on Monday and Tuesday this week. A few national squad athletes based in the region competed but the event was mainly for teams to assess their readiness for the PNG Games in November. East New Britain took the opportunity to expose some of its younger athletes with a team of 33 athletes from the Primary schools. Thirteen year Claylin Steven was very impressive in winning the 3000m in 11min 32 seconds as was 19 year old Nancy Malamut in the U18 sprints. Morgan Tobeno and Ephraim Lerkin from New Ireland stood out in the sprint events as did Charles Livuan from East New Britain. The outstanding performance of the championships was a 6.92 metre long jump by Penniel Joshua of Namatanai, which is 32cm better than anyone else has done in PNG this year
Athletics in New Ireland has been revived in recent years following the arrival of coach Maryanne Salameng in the Province. As a result of the participation of New Ireland in recent national championships and the 2012 PNG Games four of its athletes have made the training squad for the Pacific Games. They are Robson Yinambe, Raymond Koniel, Penniel Joshua and Wesley Logorava. In addition Raylyne Kanam (400m hurdles) and Esther Simon have been selected in the development squad (800m).
September 18, 2014
Last Modified on 02/10/2014 11:06