PAPUA New Guinea’s emerging sprinter Timothy Tuna has propelled himself into the national record books. He shattered former sprinter Theo Piniau’s 200m record.

Tuna is not a new name in PNG Athletics history. He is the son of former PNG sprinting sensation Takale Tuna. He recorded 20.75 seconds, officially making his mark at the international scene.

He broke the record running on the new track at West Texas A& M University, Canyon in a high-quality field.

His own father (Takale) was a record holder for 20 years (1989 to 2009) before it was broken. The last record was set by Piniau (20.97 secs) in 2016 before Timothy shattered it on Sunday (April 13).

Tuna set the pace in lane 8. Ghana’s James Dadzie overhauled him in the closing stages. James attends West Texas A& M and holds his country’s national record with a time of 19.79secs run in 2023.

Athletics PNG President Tony Green, while congratulating Tuna, mentioned this was a very significant improvement for Timothy. It was not a total surprise given his recent form.

“His 21.08 second clocking in freezing conditions on Feb 22 was a sign of things to come. His wind assisted 10.09 clocking for the 100m last month indicates that he may soon challenge Pais Wisil’s recently set 100m record.”

“Things are now looking very good for PNG in the men’s sprints after so many years of domination by Fiji.”

“Emmanuel Anis was also in great form at the same meet, clocking times of 10.38 (+2.1) in the 100m and 21.30 (+2.3) in the 200m.”

Meanwhile over in Perth at the Australian Championships, the men’s 100m was hotly contested. Pais Wisil reached the semifinal. Still, his time of 10.42 seconds was not enough to advance to the final.

Both the winner Rohan Browning and second placed Lachlan Kennedy clocked a championship record 10.01 seconds.

Lakona Gerega was in good form in the Javelin qualifying round, throwing a season’s best 63.72m but wasn’t able to improve on this in the final.