National squad athletes around PNG have the opportunity this month to prove themselves ready for the Oceania Championships which will be held in Suva, Fiji from 28th June to 1st July. With regular competitions getting underway in Port Moresby and occasional meets being conducted in Lae as well as many inter secondary school competitions in the New Guinea Islands, PNG based squad members will be out to prove their readiness for the Championships.
Nelson Stone is expected to run some races in Port Moresby over the next two weeks and there are a host of young Athletes keen to compete including Charles Livuan, Morgan Tobeno, David Guka, Shadrick Tansi as well as Damien Kotou from Manus. Roland Hure has shown impressive potential in the jumps over the two competitions held to date. Over in Kokopo Leeroy Kamau and Michael Peni have been training hard for several months in preparation for the upcoming competitions. In Lae Ephraim Lerkin and Emmanuel Wanga have been training very well and are leading the 400m rankings this year with times of 48.8secs and 49.3secs respectively. Tuna Tine and Mary Kua have also been training consistently well and will have the opportunity to run some trial competitions next week in Lae. George Yamak, Kaminiel Matlaun and Martin Orovo will race over 800m in Lae with Yamak and Orovo being joined by Simbai Kaspar, Abel Siune and others for the 1500m.
