PNG men’s and women’s 4 x 400m relay teams win Pacific Games gold
Papua New Guinea has won gold in the men's and women's 4 x 400m relays at the Sol2023 Pacific Games.
The PNG men's team of Daniel Baul, Emmanuel Wanga, Adolf Kauba and Benjamin Aliel led throughout at Honiara's National Stadium but Fiji put them under pressure throughout the race.
The PNG team finished in 3 minutes, 13.53 seconds to claim gold, about two seconds ahead of Fiji’s Sailasa Moala, Waisake Tewa, Vishant Reddy and Jonacani Koroi.
The bronze medallists were Vanuatu, who crossed the line with a time of 3:20.49.
PNG were handed a yellow card for a foul but after a tense wait after the race they retained their gold medal position.
PNG’s second runner Wanga, who along with Baul and Aliel won at the Pacific Games in Samoa in 2019, said his team had been expecting to defend their title.
“I’d like to thank God for the opportunity to represent my country. Three of us were part of the team (in Samoa), it has been a long journey, but we’re just doing it for the country," he told the Pacific Games News Service.
In the women's event, Isila Apkup, Edna Boafob, Adrine Monagi and Leonie Beu triumphed with a time of 3 minutes and 49.11 seconds to claim the gold medal ahead of New Caledonia (3:53.73) and New Zealand (3:57.17).
It was Monagi in the third lap who turned the momentum in PNG’s favour as she overtook New Caledonia and set up Beu for the final 400m lap. Beu ran with ease and finished the job for team PNG.
Monagi told the Pacific Games News Service: “We were pretty excited about this race. A huge acknowledgement to the girls who did a lot of events. I didn’t get what I wanted in the hurdles (silver), so it motivated me. I wanted to come out here and win gold (in the hurdles) but unfortunately it didn’t work out. I hit a lot of hurdles, so I had to take it out on the 4×4”.
Beu said: “We worked really hard for this 4×4 race, and it all paid off. The crowd made us move so thanks to the other Papua New Guineans here, thanks for the support”.
Coach Brett Green also expressed his delight with the women's team’s performance.
“This shows that they’ve done the hard work in training and that’s what it takes and they’ve just got to keep going in there and doing it," he told the Pacific Games News Service.
“This is just a big performance basically from the team and that’s what relays are all about, putting your best team out there. Not necessarily always the fastest runners but the best team so that’s just brilliant by the girls."
The relay gold medals came after PNG took a clean sweep of the medals in the men's 400m final on Wednesday night.
At Honiara's National Stadium, Aliel, Baul and Wanga continued their country's domination of the event.
Just four hundredths of a second separated gold medallist Aliel (47.17 seconds) and silver medallist Baul (47.21 seconds), while Wanga settled for third in 48.43 seconds.
After the race, Wanga told the Pacific Games News Service: “First of all, we want to thank God for this opportunity in representing our country. We are so proud to come out and give our best.
"We say thank you to our families back home and our coaches who gave us the opportunity."
Aliel added: “It has been a long time (coming). I left the sport for two years and it’s my first time to come back again after 2019.
"This is my first international race again and I’m proud of my mates for pushing me in training”.
NBC/Pacific Games News Service