Toea Wisil and Nelson Stone will be PNG’s representatives in Athletics at the Olympic Games in London, competing in the 100m and 400m respectively.Their selection was confirmed today following the passing of the deadline for individual athletes to reach the qualifying times in their respective events. As beneficiaries of IOC Training scholarships towards the Olympic Games , Wisil and Stone were always the favourites to get the nod ahead of any other athletes but the opportunity had to be given to others to try and run the qualifying times ,said Athletics PNG President Tony Green.
Wisil has been in consistent form all year and is clearly PNG’s top female athlete at the moment although Betty Burua has shown that she has the ability to challenge for that position and will take great confidence from her 400m performance at Loughborough last Saturday. “Toea has done a lot of good training sessions recently with the World’s #1 female athlete Sally Pearson and is aiming to reach a peak by the time the Athletics Competition gets underway in London on 3rd August” said Green.
Stone meanwhile is determined to get back to the sort of form that saw him break the 400m national record at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 with a 46.70 second clocking. His best time this year is 47.05 run at the Queensland Championships in March. A groin injury suffered at the National Championships in Lae a week later set back his preparations for London, but a 47.84 secs run at the McCain Birmingham Games on Sunday July 8 where he finished second indicates that Stone is back on track. Toea Wisil was also in action again at the Birmingham Games where she won the 100m event in 11.61 seconds.
The athletes will compete again at the Welsh International Games at Cardiff on July 18, an event which is expected to feature a significant number of international athletes. Both Boino and Burua will also compete at this Meet. “Whilst Mowen and Betty are in good form they wish to try and improve their personal best times, and I am delighted they have agreed to stay on for the Meet at Cardiff” said Green. He paid tribute to Boino for producing a series of great performances from February through to the present time including three sub 51 second timings in the 400m hurdles and a total of twelve sub 52 second performances.”Mowen has been a wonderful ambassador for PNG and has made a huge contribution to raising the profile of PNG Athletics with his performances in Australia, Belgium and the UK. He should feel very proud of his achievements this year” Green concluded
Last Modified on 25/07/2012 04:26