Athletics PNG will be represented by three female and eight male athletes at the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast in April. Triple Gold Medallist from the 2015 Pacific Games Rellie Kaputin will contest the long jump and triple jump whereas young Afure Adah will run the 100m and 200m sprints. Adrine Monagi will run the 100m hurdles event in which she has recently shown good form , improving her personal best to 13.89 seconds. Nazmie Lee Marai who won the 100m and 200m at the recent Pacific Mini Games will also run these two events along with his team mate Wesley Logorava. National 200m record holder Theo Piniau will run only the 200m and young Ephraim Lerkin will contest the 400m and 400m hurdles. Thirty eight year old Mowen Boino will be competing in his fifth Commonwealth Games and will also run the 400m hurdles, an event in which he has been unbeaten in Pacific Games competition since 1999. Para athlete Samuel Nason has been granted a universality place and will run the 100m in the T47 class.
PNG’s two field event athletes in the mens division are Peniel Richard and Debono Paraka. Richard is the National Record holder in both long jump and triple jump and will contest both of these events at the Games. Paraka will compete in both discus and shot put and recently improved his own National discus record to 51.00 metres. He and coach Brett Green are confident that he can between now and the Games further improve on this as well as improve his shot put record. Head Coach for the team is Phillip Newton who steered the PNG Jumps and combined event athletes to 5 gold 4 silver and 5 bronze medals at the 2015 Pacific Games. Samuel Nason’s coach Wilson Malana will be the assistant coach and Nola Peni the Team Manageress.
Rellie Kaputin – Long Jump and Triple Jump
Adrine Monagi – 100m Hurdles
Afure Adah – 100m and 200m
Nazmie Lee Marai – 100m an 200m
Wesley Logorava – 100m and 200m
Theo Piniau – 200m
Mowen Boino – 400m Hurdles
Ephraim Lerkin – 400m and 400m Hurdles
Peniel Richard – Long Jump and Triple Jump
Debono Paraka – Discus and Shot Put
Samuel Nason – 100m T47
Phil Newton – Head Coach
Wilson Malana – Team Manager
Nola Peni – Team Manager
