RADIO AUSTRALIA
PAPUA NEW GUINEA will be sending its largest Olympic team ever to the London Games next month.
Eight athletes will compete in five sports including athletics, swimming, taekwondo, judo and weightlifting.
Most of those selected are currently training overseas in preparation for the games.
The team's head of mission, Syd Yates, told Radio Australia that winning a medal would be a huge achievement for the team.
"We're looking at continued improvement and personal bests," he said.
"Look if we can get a medal it would be fantastic but I think we'll just have to wait and see."
Toea Wisil did Banz and PNG proud by winning her heat in the 100 metres sprint and slashing her personal best time.
Unfortunately she missed out on a place in the semi-finals by just a fraction of a second as it was a very strong field.
She's definitely one to watch in the future.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 04 August 2012 at 12:31 PM
Well 9 spoilt their copybook by inserting an ad break just when the PNG team was about to march out, so we saw nothing of them.
If this was also the case in PNG I reckon you could hear the howls of outrage at the top of Mt Wilhelm from all over the country.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 28 July 2012 at 06:28 PM
The PNG team is -
Raymond Ovinou, Judo
Theresa Tona, Taekwondo
Nelson Stone, Athletics
Dikla Toua, Weightlifting
Ryan Pini, Swimming
Toea Wisil, Athletics
Judith Meauri, Swimming
Stephen Kari, Weightlifting.
Ryan Pini and Toea Wisil are probably the best medal chances.
Toea was chosen to be the PNG flagbearer at the opening ceremony. She has been preparing well for the Games with consistent performances in competitions both in Australia other countries.
Her training partner is one of the best female athletes, Sally Pearson.
Could Toea become PNG's Cathy Freeman?
Here's a short video of her achievements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_fWSNZAIu4
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 28 July 2012 at 11:44 AM