TEAM PNG to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (B2022CG) had qualified two athletes from Weightlifting and two athletes from Table Tennis.
The four athletes include current Commonwealth Games silver medalists Dika Toua and Morea Baru from Weightlifting along with Geoffrey Loi and Tammy Agari from the Table Tennis sport.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) confirmed that the four athletes had qualified through the regional qualification process.
With COVID-19 continuing to affect sporting competitions in the region, Weightlifting and Table Tennis were not able to stage their respective regional Oceania qualifying competitions and instead saw the respective international federations resort to rankings to confirm qualifications spots for the respective sports.
Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee (PNGOC) Secretary General, Auvita Rapilla was pleased to confirm the four athletes that had secured their qualifications places for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
” With less than 120 days to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, it is exciting to have four athletes qualify for these Games. Not long to go to the Games and having these four athletes qualify will help them focus on their preparations and work towards achieving their respective goals for the games”, said Rapilla.
Thirty-seven-year-old Oceania Champion and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Silver medalist, Dika Toua will be looking to defend her silver medal and will also look at going a step further and aim for the Gold medal in her fifth appearance at the Commonwealth Games.
Toua will be competing in the Women’s 48kg category, with fellow Weightlifting champion, Morea Baru who will be looking to defend his silver medal which he claimed at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Baru will be participating in the Men’s 61kg weight category.
Both athletes together with their coach Willie Tamasi are currently in Melbourne where they are training under long time mentor and Coach Paul Coffa at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute.
The second sport to have qualified athletes through regional qualification for the (B2022CG) is Table Tennis, with Geoffrey Loi in the Men’s Singles and Tammie Agari, in the Women’s Singles.
Both athletes are based in Port Moresby under their Coaches Rea Loi and Jackson Kariko.
This will be young Loi’s second appearance at a Commonwealth Games with Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games being his first.
Loi won a silver medal at the 2019 Pacific Games in the Men’s doubles and is the number one ranked male athlete in the country.
Tammie Agari, on the other hand will be making her debut at the 2022 Birmingham Games.
She is the current PNG champion, having won the last two National Championships held in 2021 and she is currently the number one ranked athlete in the Women’s category in PNG.
The final contingent is yet to be finalized with several sports conducting their respective national competitions over the coming weeks to determine the athletes to be part of Team PNG through the 31 open allocation slots.
The final Team PNG contingent to the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be announced closer to the Games.
The first members of the team will depart for Birmingham, United Kingdom, on July 20 and the Games will take place from July 28 to August 8.
