Team PNG

Chef de Mission, Emma Waiwai, says these athletes are primed, fit and ready to battle it out with the best of the best.

“Four years have seen our athletes sacrifice their comfort zones and their family time to prepare for these games,” Waiwai said at the Team PNG farewell function yesterday evening in Port Moresby.

“Each athlete going is the best for each sport.

Team PNG’s 2019 Chef de Mission says their aim is to finish at the number one spot.

Athletes are at the heart of the Olympic movement, hence the PNG Olympic Committee aims to ensure that they perform at their best.

Chef de Mission for Team PNG to Samoa 2019, Emma Waiwai, stressed that everything they do is for PNG’s athletes.

“Because on the day, we can shout and scream and do everything but it’s you that’s going to win the medal for us,” Waiwai told members of Team PNG during a media blitz on Friday.

It was the 4 by 100 metre freestyle races that got the crowd roaring towards the end of the final heats for their respective teams.

Team PNG did well in the 4x100 freestyle relay; it was the men’s race that was every bit a nail-biting experience.

Team PNG’s Sam Seghers opened the race for the lads, maintaining speed with Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.

Next in the pool was 18-year-old Josh Tarere, who put up a good challenge against Samoa’s Sitivi Sooaemalelagi, and one of Fiji’s strongest swimmers, 18-year-old Taichi Vakasama.

It began slowly but ended with a silver medal win courtesy of Morea Baru’s outstanding performance in the men’s 62kg weightlifting competition.

Another highlight of the day was the impressive win by boxer, Thadius Katua, in the preliminary rounds of the men’s 60kg division. Katua outscored his Nigerian opponent with classy footwork and super-fast punches which saw him through to the next round.

More than 6,600 athletes and officials from 70 Commonwealth nations and territories will take part in 11 days of competition from 4^th to 15^th of April 2018.

Team PNG, consisting of 56 athletes and 32 officials, including the General Management Team, has arrived in Gold Coast and are gearing up for the event.

They will participate in 10 of the 23 sports offered during the Games.

The 10 sports are; Athletics (para-athletics), boxing, lawn bowls, rugby 7s, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis (para-table tennis), triathlon and weightlifting.

They gathered in Port Moresby last Saturday with the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee in the first Games workshop to share their plans, progress and Games targets.

President of the PNGOC, Sir John Dawanincura, said the Samoa 2019 Pacific Games presents this opportunity for Team PNG to create history on foreign soil.

He also pointed out that it was the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, who presented the team with this challenge at the end of the 2015 Pacific Games.

In shooting, there will be two gold medals up for grabs in the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol event.

The women’s final takes place at 11:15 at the June Valley Shooting Range, with the men’s final following at 15:30.

There will be four gold medals awarded in Va’a (canoeing) in the men’s and women’s 1500m and 500m V6 events, which start at 12:00 at the Naval Base.

The women’s and men’s team table tennis finals will take place at the Caritas Technical Secondary School at East Boroko at 14:30 and 17:00.