Agari narrowly misses out on first win

BIRMINGHAM, UNITED KINGDOM | Team Papua New Guinea’s Tammi Agari narrowly missed out on a win in her second match against Fiji’s Touea Titana in the Women’s Singles table tennis event at the National Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.

The sixteen-year-old from Tubusereia in the Central Province managed to shake off the nerves after the loss of her first match to push her Fijian opponent all the way into the seventh game only to be edged out 4-3 (18 – 16, 10 – 12, 9 – 11, 12 –10, 11 – 4, 6 – 11, 11 – 9).

In the Men’s Singles, Geoffrey Loi put up spirited performances in his 4-0 losses to Barbados’ Tyrese Knight and to Malaysia’s Qi Shen Wong.

Amongst the Team PNG supporters in the crowd was Chef de Mission Michael Henao who commended the two youngsters on their improved performances saying: “We are proud of your efforts thus far. You are young and have a long way to go and will only get better. Learn, reset and do your best in the Doubles.” Loi and Agari are students at the Butuka Academy in Port Moresby and do long commuting every day from Tubusereia to school, then after to training, and then back home to Tubusereia. “A lot of sacrifices, has been put in by our athletes and officials to prepare for this competition and we encourage support from our fellow Papua New Guineans back in Papua New Guinea and around the world,” said Henao. “Unless we have walked, run, and played in their shoes, we will truly appreciate their hard work and sacrifices – the sweat, the tears, and the hardship that came with it.”

In other results from Day 6 of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Team Papua New Guinea’s Squash Mixed Doubles pairing of Amity Alarcos and Feanor Siaguru went down to Donna Lobban and Cameron Pilley of Australia 2-0.

To the track and field, Team Papua New Guinea’s Edna Boafob recorded a Personal Best in the Women’s Heptathlon with a total of 4068 points finishing eighth overall.

Emmanuel Wanga placed seventh in his heat of the Men’s 400m with a time of 48.23 seconds.

Team Papua New Guinea athletes and officials who are based at the Commonwealth Games Village at the NEC were also honoured to have met the Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward on Wednesday. Weightlifter Morea Baru had the pleasure of showing the Prince his Commonwealth Games silver medal.

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