East Sepik athlete Isila Apkup is showing great form as the Indoor track competition gets underway in the USA Junior College Programme.
After posting some very encouraging times over 60m and 200m in her first two competitions the 22 year old from Ambunti moved up a gear on Monday (PNG time) and clocked a sensational 400m time of 56.94 seconds at Kansas State University, Pittsburg.
Teammate Leonie Beu running in the outside lane held back in the first 200m and could not make up the gap on Apkup but still finished with a good time of 57.85 seconds.
Ephraim Lerkin was also in great form, running under 1min 55 seconds for the 800m leg of the distance medley relay and following this up with an excellent 1min 22 secs in the individual 600m race.
Emmanuel Wanga who only arrived two weeks ago has hit the ground running and recorded pleasing times of 6.98secs for 60m and 49.59 in the 400m.
Running in the same 400m race Shadrick Tansi paid the price for an overly aggressive first 200m and faded in the closing stages to finish in 50.95secs
Meanwhile National long and Triple Jump champion Peniel Richard started his 2021 campaign in fine style with distances of 7.15m and 15.31 respectively.
Richard returned to the USA in January last year and joined the West Texas A&M programme which brought Rellie Kaputin so much success.
With the 2020 season being abandoned with the onset of Covid19 Richard has had a long and very good preparation for the 2021 season.
The Kansas based athletes have two more competitions on their calendar before the Regional Championships on the weekend of 20/21 February and the Indoor National Championships on March 5 and 6
