Stone and hard a hard place

By PARKER TAMBUA
PUTTING last year’s disappointment aside, former sprinter and Olympian Nelson Stone is hoping to finally win an award in this year’s SP Sports Awards.
Stone was the runner-up in the 2022 SP Sports Awards’ sports official of the year but is looking forward to go one better this year.
Stone is nominated again this year in the same category, with the winner to be announced in the awards night next Saturday at the Crown Hotel in Port Moresby.
Stone’s brainchild, the Nest Athletics Club won the national performance of the year award in the 2022 SP Sports Awards event following his successes in strength and conditioning programmes.
Apart from winning only one award in the annual event, Stone has been the runner-up in a number of award categories since 1998.
In 1998 he was the runner-up in the junior sports man award and 11 years later he was the runner-up in sports man of the year award in 2009 and 2010.
In 2015 Stone was runner-up for sports mentor award and fell short again for the community initiative award in 2019.
In 2020 he was part of the Hela Wigmen Rugby League franchise that were runners-up in team of the year award and last year was runner-up for sports official of the year.
“Following my retirement in athletics in 2019 I made the transition into strength and conditioning coach,” Stone said.
“I think I got this inspiration from my dad (Jamuga Stone) and my late brother Andrew Stone.
“My dad is a former PNG Kumuls trainer and my late brother was a former SP PNG Hunters trainer.
“But what I am doing now with my programmes is dedicated to my late brother as he meant a lot to me.
“Apart from rugby league, I’ve been involved with the Sparrows netball team in the Port Moresby Netball, the masters athletics and my Nest Athletics Club.”
One of Stone’s highlight in his profession was the two premierships and three grand final appearances with Hela Wigmen in the Digicel Cup from 2019-2022.
“I’ve had great highlights as an official and one that stands out for me would be my four years with Hela Wigmen,” Stone said.
“It has never been easy and there is always challenges obviously with finance is always a hurdle.
“But challenge is always part of the journey and I’ve always brushed it aside and continue to go all-out in doing what I love.
“I take each day seriously and put my heart into my work and let the future take care of itself.”
Stone said there were many people that he came across in his journey as an athlete and as an official that shaped him to be where he was now.
“There is a lot of people I would like to acknowledge but that will take ages. I thank God for all those people that I have come across in my life and they all contributed one way the other.”
Stone continues to run his strength and conditioning programmes with the Nest Athletics Club. He is now attached with the Mendi Muruks in the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup and the team is currently dominating the competition.