By Lorraine Genia – EM TV Sport, Port Moresby
From a grade 12 graduate, to now a potential gold medallist for the 2015 Pacific Games, David Stegman’s commitment and passion for athletics, has brought him a long way, in such a short space of time.
Stegman competed at the BSP 6th PNG Games for the first time, representing his home province of Simbu, and qualifying third for his respective field, of decathlon.
Without the luxury and comfort of proper training facilities in Hagen, Stegman had a number of challenges he had to oversee to come this far, in his inaugural year of athletics.
“There’s really nothing in Hagen, no proper training facilities. It was hard, but I just had to stay focussed,” said Stegman.
Balancing his educational needs, with his training demands was something he had to manage, 2014 being his final year of high school.
“Time management would have had to be my biggest challenge, trying to balance school with training,” he said. But perseverance and his never-say-die attitude made things possible.
Training alongside the likes of De’bono Paraka, Betty Burua and Toea Wisil has been the highlight of his career thus far.
David was selected to attend the 55 man training squad at the National Sporting Institute in Goroka, as a lead up into final selections of the athletics contingent, for the 2015 Pacific Games.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ifwEUHeAhso%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
