Wisil Sets New 60m National Record at World Indoor Championships

Pais Wisil’s extraordinary run of fast times in the 60m and 100m sprints continued on Friday at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, PR China, where he set a new national indoor record for the 60m. This comes just one week after smashing Peter Pulu’s 30-year-old 100m national record, clocking an astonishing 10.24 seconds in Brisbane last weekend.

“These are not just national records,” said Athletics PNG President Tony Green. “They are very significant performances.” Unfazed by running alongside the world’s best sprinters, Wisil qualified for the semi-final at the World Championships with a superb run, recording a time of 6.66 seconds, the 17th fastest from a field of 58 runners. Experienced observers and commentators were surprised to see a PNG athlete competing in a World Championship semi-final.

The World Athletics scoring tables, developed by statisticians, are a recognized method of comparing performances in different events by assigning points to results. Wisil’s 10.24-second run in Brisbane is worth 1,125 points, making it the highest-ranked performance among all PNG men’s national records. This achievement takes the #1 spot from Mowen Boino’s 400m hurdles record of 50.37 seconds, which is valued at 1,112 points.

Wisil’s outstanding performance has earned him an invitation to compete in the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne next weekend, the premier event on the Australian Athletics Calendar. His last major competition before the Pacific Mini Games will be the Australian Championships in Perth, scheduled from April 10–13.

Meanwhile, over in the United States, another PNG sprinter, Timothy Tuna, is also poised to deliver top performances in the 100m and 200m sprints as the outdoor season gets underway. The son of PNG athletics legend Takale Tuna, Timothy burst onto the scene at the Oceania Championships last year, winning the bronze medal in the 200m with a time of 21.36 seconds in a highly competitive field.

This year, Timothy has already run a wind-assisted 21.08 seconds for the 200m earlier in the season. On Saturday, he sprinted to a scintillating 10.09 seconds in the 100m, aided by a strong following wind. While the wind conditions prevent this time from being recognized as a record, it is still an exceptionally fast performance, signaling that Tuna is capable of running times comparable to Pais Wisil.

With these exceptional performances, PNG sprinting is making waves on the international stage, and the upcoming competitions promise even more excitement for the nation’s top athletes.

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