Wisil's reign continues

Pacific's sprint queen Toea Wisil of Papua New Guinea cruised her way to the finishing line to win a gold medal in the 100 metres senior women's final of the 2017 Oceania Athletics Championships at the ANZ Stadium in Suva last night.

She clocked a time of 11.63 seconds finishing ahead of Morgan Gaffney and Jessica Peris of Australia who finished second and third respectively.

The 29-year-old Papua New Guinean runner said she was not happy with her time.

"It is good to win but I was not chasing the time since they cannot turn the clock around so that I can run the time but I am happy with the win," she said.

"My personal best was 11.29 seconds which I ran in the Melanesian Games in Fiji last year.

"I love what I am doing and I have a passion for it."

Wisil said she would continue to work hard in her career.

"I dedicate the win to my coach Tony Fairweather who had always believed in me and encouraged me with the challenges and the problems which we face," she said.

"My secret to the young girls not only in PNG but to every country in the Oceania is to dream big since nothing in life is easy but you need to work hard in school and sport.

"My message to the girls is not to think about boyfriends but you need to set goals and work towards it. My coach is always killing me every day in training and I will go back to Australia and train for the next event, said Wisil.

Meanwhile, Australian Jamie Scroop won her first international gold medal in Fiji after winning the women pole vault senior competition at the 2017 Oceania Athletics Championships at the ANZ Stadium in Suva yesterday.

She jumped four metres to bag gold while Katherine Iannell also of Australia settled for a silver medal with a jump of 3.60 metres.

Scroop said she would always remember her first gold medal.

"I am happy to win in first and it is the first time for me to win a medal. The weather hold up for us and we cannot complain too much," she said.

"I started this sport when I was 12 years old and I have been doing this for about 14 years. I was brought up in Adelaide in South Australia and I have moved to Sydney now where I have been training for about six months now.

"It was nice to win an international medal, said Scroop.

SOURCE: FIJI TIMES/PACNEWS