Coach Elias Rangamar gathered the NMI team at the Gilbert C. Ada Gym conference room a few hours before the Oceania Grand Prix events started on Monday.
Rangamar was a little bit emotional while speaking to the young athletes as he continued to motivate them.
“I was just trying to pump up their morale,” says Rangamar who sounded hesitant to detail out the meeting with the athletes.
Assistant coach Nick Gross however said he and Rangamar were just trying to make the athletes understand how big the event is.
“They’re young kids and they get to some emotional stuff,” he said.
Jerico Cruz who trailed in the 200 Meters Sprint Open running 25.86 seconds and Men High Jump last Saturday going 1.60 meters, said in a separate interview that coach Rangamar was just trying to motivate them.
“I like the way he coaches us,” he said.
Cruz said there are some of them who complained about some events for which they did not have the chance to practice.
The 100-meter sprint for example is totally different from the 300-meter sprint even if they both involve running, he said.
So if an athlete trained for any of them, it won’t guarantee he or she can excel in the other.
But these he said are all about facing the challenges.
As for him, he said he did not practice in the 200-meter sprint but he joined the competition.
Aside from Men High Jump Open and 200 Meters Sprint, Cruz also competed in the Triple Jump Open.
The NMI’s men team ranked third with 74 points among 14 other athlete teams in 15 events while NMI’s women ranked second scoring 73 in 13 events.
Papua New Guinea ranked first in women, while Fiji ranked first in men.
