Seven distance runners preparing for next years Pacific Games will be leaving for Guam on Sunday evening via Cairns to take part in the Oceania Cross Country Championships. The athletes are (male) Kupsy Bisamo , Simbai Kaspar , Skene Kiage and Abel Siune ; and females Jenny Albert , Ongan Awa and Mary Kua. The athletes are all from Simbu Province although Bisamo , Kiage and Albert are currently based in Kokopo under the Athletics PNG training programme for the Pacific Games. They will be accompanied to Guam by Philip Kamane (Manager) and Mirriam Goiye (assistant)
The championships will be held in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Invitational Cross Country Race and include various different events for various age groups. The open men will run 12km and the youth will run 5km. The womens open distance is 8km , with 6km for Junior and 5km for youth. A bonus for the athletes is that they will have the opportunity to run in the popular annual Guamkoko road relay on Sunday 19 October. The four person relay team will cover the half marathon distance of 21.1 km. Goiye will join the girls to make up a womens relay team.
All the athletes are preparing for the PNG Games so have been in full swing training since the national championships. Youngsters Siune, Kua and Awa have all clocked good times in recent trials at Kondiu where they are based, and training under coach Paul Komba
Athletics PNG President Tony Green said the athletes are all really looking forward to the event and he was optimistic of a good result. Kupsy and Simbai both ran very well at the Gold Coast half marathon in July where they both clocked times of 1hr 12 minutes with Bisamo just getting home ten seconds ahead of Kaspar who was running the distance for the first time.
Photo is Simbai finishing the Gold Coast half marathon
Last Modified on 12/10/2014 19:02