Team Papua New Guinea’s Tammi Agari narrowly missed out on a win in her second match against Fiji’s Touea Titana in the Women’s Singles table tennis event at the National Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.
The sixteen-year-old from Tubusereia in the Central Province, managed to shake off the nerves after the loss of her first match to push her Fijian opponent all the way into the seventh game only to be edged out 4-3 (18 – 16, 10 – 12, 9 – 11, 12 –10, 11 – 4, 6 – 11, 11 – 9).
In the Men’s Singles, Geoffrey Loi put up spirited performances in his 4-0 losses to Barbados’ Tyrese Knight and to Malaysia’s Qi Shen Wong.
Amongst the Team PNG supporters in the crowd was Chef de Mission Michael Henao who commended the two youngsters on their improved performances saying: “We are proud of your efforts thus far. You are young and have a long way to go and will only get better. Learn, reset and do your best in the Doubles.”
Loi and Agari are students at the Butuka Academy in Port Moresby and do long commuting every day from Tubusereia to school, then after to training and then back home to Tubusereia.
“A lot of sacrifice, has been put in by our athletes and officials to prepare for this competition and we encourage support from our fellow Papua New Guineans back in Papua New Guinea and around the world,” said Henao.
“Unless we have walked, run and played in their shoes, we will truly appreciate their hard work and sacrifices – the sweat, the tears and the hardship that came with it.”