PNG will be represented by six male and five female athletes at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst NSW on 18 February.
Siune Kagl , Dilu Goiye , Abel Siune , Israel Takap , Aquila Turalom and James Kuadua make up the mens team whilst Scholastica Herman , Ongan Awa , Mary Tenge , Aina Goir and Mary Kua make up the womens team.
Athletics PNG President Tony Green who will take the team to Bathurst said he was very proud that PNG were able to field teams in both the Open womens 10km and Open mens 10km events as well as the mixed relay.
He said that a lot of work had gone into preparing the team over the past two years and that significant funding from World Athletics through the Athletics Olympic Dividend Project combined with support from the National Sports Institute, PNG Olympic Committee, PNG Air and Prima Smallgoods.
“We would have liked to have had 14 athletes in total Green added, but we lost Wilford Baia who was in great form at the PNG Air National Championships and the two newcomers that were identified late in 2022 could not complete their travel documents in time.
Mary Kua and Aina Goir will fly into Sydney from the USA on Friday this week to allow time to get over jet lag whereas the other nine team members with Coach Philip Kamane will fly in from the Gold Coast on Wednesday 15 February.
The City of Gold Coast through its Sports Attract Programme as well as Oceania Athletics are assisting Athletics PNG with their final preparations for the Championships.
The nine athletes have been training at the Gold Coast since mid December.
Following the late withdrawal of coach Bernard Manau, Head Coach Brett Green has been taking the athletes for their key track workouts and providing guidance for their other sessions prior to the arrival of Kamane.
A number of other Pacific Island nations are taking up the opportunity to have their athletes participate in what promises to be a wonderful experience at Mt Panorama , Bathurst including Fiji (with 9 athletes), Solomon islands (5) and with Guam NMI , Kiribati and Tahiti each sending one male and one female.
Green said that he will be encouraging the athletes to go out and soak up the atmosphere and enjoy themselves.
The opportunity to compete in a world championships is a once in a lifetime occurrence for the vast majority of athletes and this is only the second time the WXC has ever been held in the Oceania Region.
Since this is a World Championship our athletes know we are up against the best in the world.
Whilst our times are obviously not going to challenge these athletes the PNG athletes have been training hard and will always give their best.
The Championships are an experience and opportunity for our distance runners to observe and learn from the best.
We have a much stronger squad of middle and long distance runners as a result of this programme, especially in the mens division,so we expect to see a better performance in the distance events at the Honiara Games this year than at any full Pacific Games since the 1980’s