DENLYNE Kinbangi delivered a historic performance last Thursday evening, winning Papua New Guinea’s first gold medal at the Philippines Open with a storming run in the women’s 200m final.
She clocked a personal best of 25.59 seconds to secure victory.
Other standout performances included Lucas Osida, who achieved a massive personal best in the discus with a throw of 44.45m to finish fourth among 22 athletes. Joyline Eric impressed in the 5000m, recording a time of 19 minutes 52 seconds, while young sprinter Kabake Lansana shone in the Under-18 category.
With no semi-finals in the sprint events, only the top eight advanced from the heats to the finals. Kabake ran a personal best of 11.63 seconds in the 100m, placing 14th out of 47 athletes.
In the 200m, he qualified as the seventh fastest from 45 competitors and went on to finish fifth in the final with a time of 23.13 seconds.
Meanwhile, William Peka clocked 53.04 seconds in the heats of the 400m hurdles but was disqualified after a judge ruled his trail leg had not properly cleared a hurdle. In another setback, Daniel Baul was eliminated from the same event due to a mix-up in call room reporting, which led to him being judged late.
