Some Of Our Elite KTL Boys Flew To Goroka Today

[Boss Meri]

Some of our elite porters headed off to Goroka to compete in the inaugural Mt Wilhelm Race from Kundiawa to Kekla/Keglesugo – a 41 km Marathon mainly uphill to be held on the 12th June 2008.

The race will co-incide with the visit of the Governor General of PNG and the Mt Wilhelm Culture Show

Theme:

Stopim Stim, Stopim Spak Brus (translation – Stopim Stim = Stop home made brew. Stopim Spak Brus = Stop the smoking of marijuana).

Photograph – Left to Right:

Back Row (left) – Wayne Urina – 2nd fastest man to walk/run the Kokoda Track in a time of 18:51
Back Row (right) – Horace Yauga – 4th Fastest man to walk/run the Kokoda Track in a time of 20:39

Front Row left to right:

Tom Hango – Winner of Last years Kokoda Challenge Race from Owers' Corner to Kokoda in a time of 19:09
Jennen Barai – led all the way from Owers' Corner to Eora Creek when he developed a hip problem allowing Tom Hango to catch up and pass him.
Luana Nagas – 3rd in last years race from Kokoda to Owers' Corner in a time of 20 Hours 27

Also in the top row on the right is Francis Geheso who works in our office and who comes from Goroka. Francis just walked the track recently so is in awe of the time of these guys did when they entered our Kokoda Challenge Race.
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[Boss Meri]

Missing from this photograph is the 'Kokoda Challenge Champion' in both directions, namely Brendan Buka.

Brendan was invited by the race organisers to fly to Goroka yesterday to compete in this race. Just now I got off the phone after talking with the track organiser Tobias Kulang who advises they now have over 65 people entered.

He was very excited to hear another 5 were about to hit the town. Our group has already arrived in Goroka and are presently looking for transport to take them to Kundiawa where they will sleep tonight.

Brendan Buka is the fastest man in both directions as follows:

Set in 2006 – Owers' Corner to Kokoda – Time 17 hours 49 minutes
Set in 2007 – Kokoda to Owers' Corner – Time 17 hours 20 minutes

Photographs:

Pic 1 – Brendan shortly after arriving at Owers' Corner in August 2007
Pic 2 – Brendan relaxing in Kokoda in August 2006 with his winners cheque of K10,000 along with other prizes.
Brendan_Buka.jpg
Winner_2006_Brendan_Buka.jpg

[Boss Meri]

Prize money offered for this race is K2,500.00 spoudly sponsored by Mt Wilhelm Tours Limited

[Boss Meri]

Update 12th June.

Have just heard from from Kundiawa that at 8:30am some of our boys had hit the 20km mark so this race is obviously not as hard as the Kokoda Challenge.

Have no idea at this stage who is leading the race.

However reports have filtered through that the people who live in the area were jealous of our boys turning up to race which forced them to run in ordinary clothes not in uniform.

[Boss Meri]

Update 5pm: News in from Goroka is that one of our boys came home in either first or second position out of 100 competitors.

As soon as we have further confirmation we will post on our website.

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