PNG sailors Rose-Lee and Teariki Numa have arrived in Japan.
The brother and sister will be making their Olympic debut and will be participating in the Laser Sailing class events at the games, making them the first PNG sailors to compete in the Laser events.
Their competition will commence on 25 July and they will compete in two heats a day through to 30 July.
Teariki Numa will be competing in the Men’s Laser event in a field of 35 boats and sister Rose-Lee will be sailing the Laser Radial class, in a field of 44.
Their competition will include the World Champions from 2019 and 2020, along with the top-placed sailors from the regional qualification competitions that were held back in 2019 and early 2020.
The pair qualified along with sailors from Samoa and Fiji in the Oceania Championship in Melbourne in February 2020.
Chef de Mission, Tamzin Wardley, confirmed their arrival in Tokyo where they headed directly to the sailing village, based at Enoshima.
“They will be based away from the rest of the team, staying in a hotel that has been converted to a games village, near the sailing venue,” added Wardley.
“Whilst not part of the main Olympic Village it will be an exciting venue as the sailing competition is held across 7 different types of racing dinghies and there will be 350 sailing competitors in all.
“Enoshima is three hours away from where the rest of the Team is staying in Tokyo.”
The brother and sister team traveled with their coach Danny Fuller from Brisbane where they have been based since March, training in conditions similar to the open water swells expected at Enoshima throughout the competition.
