PNG’s former sprinter and former record holder in the 200m event in Athletics, Nelson Stone is using his skill and knowledge to coach, train and mentor the upcoming athletes registered under his club.
Under the ‘Nest Athletics Club’ (Nest, short for Nelson), the club was formed back in 2019 and to date there have been a lot of interested individuals showing their interest in joining his club.
“I created the club because I wanted to be a trainer and coach at the same time so I could organise my own team for the sprints, middle distance running and a little bit of jumping events”, said Stone.
His dream is to build the best and the most competitive Athletic Club in the country. And currently, 21 year old Leeroy Kamau who was a stand out during the National Athletics Championships and currently is the new record holder in the 200m event trained under Nelson’s guidance and mentorship.
“During the lock down last year due to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic, it was difficult to conduct training so what I did, I had to take my athletes over to my residence at Tokarara to continue training”, said Stone.
He added that he noticed that his athletes have changed in terms of attitude towards their training and they are more disciplined and hard working and their respect and eagerness to learn has shown a lot of improvements in themselves lately and it has shown in the recent championships.
During the recent PNG Air National Athletics Championships that was held in December last year, a lot of his athletes have performed very well clocking in good timings and by taking into consideration everything that they have learnt, a lot of them have performed very well in their respective events.
