The first contingent of Team PNG to the Olympics have settled in Rio and the Games Village.
In the Team PNG rooms, motivational messages from students of various schools in PNG have been placed on the walls, providing a welcome reminder to the athletes of the great support from home.
The first two Team PNG athletes to arrive, Raymond Ovinou of judo and Thadius Katua of boxing, have gotten straight into their training sessions at the Games training venues.
Katua had a sparring session with a boxer from Thailand.
His performance against the more experienced boxer was pleasing, according to coaches Allan Nicolson and Joe Aufa.
Katua will be competing on August 6th, the day after the opening ceremony of the Games.
Ovinou is also looking forward to competing and has been following his strict daily training regime with the help of coach Richard Glied.
They have, however, been able to experience some of the other features on offer at the Village, including the polyclinic with free dentistry and optometrist, the fully-equipped gym, swimming pool, hair salon and Samsung house where they tried out the virtual reality rollercoaster ride.
Over the next few days, the other Team PNG athletes will be arriving to make the contingent complete.
They will be arriving in time to take part in Team PNG’s official Games Village welcome ceremony on the 4th of August.