1 Jul 2017

Sport: Toea Wisil eyes new milestone

8:28 am on 1 July 2017

Pacific sprint star Toea Wisil is hoping for a helping hand from the weather gods as she eyes a new milestone at the Oceania Area Athletics Championships in Suva.

The 29 year-old defended her senior 100m metres title on Thursday in 11.63 seconds but fell short of the direct qualifying mark for the World Championships because of the wet conditions.

Toea Wisil in action at the 2012 London Olympics.

Toea Wisil in action at the 2012 London Olympics. Photo: AFP

Papua New Guinean two-time Olympian set a personal best time over 200m of 23.13 seconds earlier this year in Canberra and believes she can still go faster.

"Hopefully I can break 23 seconds will be great, that's my big goal...the qualifying time for World Champs is 23.10 and I ran 23.13. I'm in better shape to run both so should I get a good condition I can run the time," she said.

"I'm hoping that the weather can be kind to us to run a good time in the 200. Fiji, it's a nice track to run the times and conditions (if) it's not raining we have good conditions but if it's raining it's hard to run at the time so I hope the weather is going to be kind to us."

One For The Future

Norfolk Island teenager Tayanita Robertson is only beginning her sprinting career after taking up the discipline less than two years ago.

She's one of just two Norfolk Islanders competing at the Oceania Championships.

The Sydney-based Robertson was thrilled to finish seventh in the Women's Under 18 100m final, clocking 12.88 seconds in her debut appearance.

"I'm very excited that I was able to make it through to the finals. I was really hoping to and it was just incredible to be in a field of (so) many talented girls and I women, and I think that it's such an incredible thing for Norfolk Islands, being such a small place, small federation, and having that sort of representation in such a big event at such a big event is really incredible for me and also for the island itself," she said.

Tayanita Robertson said she was aiming for another finals appearance in the Women's Under 18 200 later today.

Norfolk Island. REDOWNLOADED 11/2

Tayanita Robertson was born in Norfolk Islands but is based in Australia. Photo: AFP