West New Britain youngsters impress on opening day

THE West New Britain junior athletics team showed its ability winning medals in the first day of the PNG Air National Age Division Athletics Championships that started yesterday.
Team manager Philip Kanau said this was a great start for the juniors who had been training hard to compete among other juniors from other centres at the Port Moresby event.
“Our athletes competed in the 400m track events, long jump and 4×100 relay for the Under-14, U16, U18 and U20 including the 3,000m distance finals,” he said.
“From the 400m events, we managed to win three gold, three silver and three bronze in the U14 boys and girls finals and the U20 women’s final,” he said.
Kanau said this was a good start for the team’s participation in the first day and they were looking forward to more good results today.
“We have a lot of good athletes that stood out today (yesterday) competing against other junior athletes from other provincial teams or clubs, a few of them are raw talents from rural areas of West New Britain.
“Overall, we are hoping to see more good results in the second and final day.”
The opening day of the junior championship saw senior athletes open the event with an invitation to contest in the long jump for trials among the junior competitors in the jumps while the throws started with the discus.
For the track events it was the 400m tracks events which saw the U14 boys and girls and the U20 girls race to the finals while the U16, U18 and U20 had their semifinals.
The race was followed by the 3,000m that saw mixed categories of junior male and female athletes compete. The day ended with the U18 and U20 men’s and women’s 4×100 relays. Day two of championships is expected to continue today with the 5,000m finals starting at 8am.