Papua New Guinea announced their roster for the 2016 Oceania Championships that will be held in June 2016 in Fiji. Papua New Guinea was originally a bidder to host this meet before Fiji eventually won those rights.
The meet is a week long event that is held every other year, always falling on an even year. This year will be the 11th edition in the series.
PNG is taking 8 athletes ranging from the age of 16-34. The swimmers include; Leonard Kalate (16), Stanford Kawale (20), Ryan Maskelyne (17), Shanice Paraka (17), Ryan Pini (34), Ashley Seeto (28), Samuel Seghers (21) and Barbara Vali-Skelton (19). The coach is Rob Van Der Zant and the manager is Kathleen Maskelyne.
Standout female swimmer, Barbara Vali-Skelton, has a PNG record in the 50 meter, 100 meter, and 200 meter breaststroke.
The biggest swimming star in the country’s history, Ryan Pini, who is the only swimmer from Papua New Guinea to final at the Olympic Games and the second in history to win a gold in the CommonWealth Games, will be making an appearance as the oldest member of the team.
Pini holds PNG records across almost every discipline; however, his main stroke is butterfly.
papua New Guinea didn’t win any medals at the 2014 edition of the championships, but took 6 medals in 2012 and stood 4th on the overall medals table.
The championships will start with an open water 5k on Monday, June 20th and will end with an open water 10k on Saturday, June 26th. The pool swimming and synchronized swimming will be from Tuesday until Friday.