PORT MORESBY (Post-Courier) Mong Tavol smashed the 38-year- old PNG national record in the mens triple jump on Sunday at the 2010 Oxy Invitational Meet in Los Angeles.
Tavol, of West New Britain parentage and who was brought up in Lae has been a member of the PNG Athletic squad since 2006.
His form in recent competitions in Brisbane and the USA had been consistent but not spectacular until Sunday PNG time, when he leaped into the record books with a massive personal best of 15.30 metres to shatter the record of 15.11 set by the late Evan Iewago in Brisbane in December 1973.
PNGAU president Tony Green said that Tavol had demonstrated his potential to break the 15 metre barrier a number of times in domestic competitions in PNG but had never quite produced the same form overseas.
He attributed Tavol’s success to a combination of a good jumping technique developed in Lae with the assistance of coach Sandy Katusele and a program of speedwork in recent weeks set by Brisbane-based coach Lloyd Way.
“Mong was jumping well when he left PNG but you could see that his run up was not fast enough to propel him the desired distance.”
“I'm very pleased for Mong, he deserves this record.”
Tavol has one more competition in Los Angeles this weekend before returning to Lae and has opted to take part in the long jump in order to try to improve his personal best in that event which is 6.75 metres achieved on May 1.
Meanwhile, Toea Wisil continued her fine run of form with another season’s best in the 100m to clock 11.57 seconds.
Salome Dell had an excellent run in the 800m to finish second to a member of the USA Olympic squad with a time of 2min 07 seconds.Wala Gime ran a personal best 48.26 seconds in the 400m.
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