Commonwealth Games

Since our Commonwealth Games debut at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Papua New Guinea has competed in every one of the thirteen editions of the Games with the exception of the 1986 Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.

With athletes from the 71 Commonwealth Nations gathering every four years to compete, the Commonwealth Games is the second biggest international sporting event Team PNG attends, after the Olympics. Most Olympic sports are played at the Commonwealth Games with the addition of sports that are played in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls and netball. The first Commonwealth Games, then known as the British Empire Games was held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada. The name changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, then to British Commonwealth Games in 1970, before taking on the current name of the Commonwealth Games in 1974.At the most recent Commonwealth Games in 2010, Papua New Guinea sent its biggest ever contingent with a 122 team travelling to Delhi, India.

Papua New Guinea can be proud of the performances of its teams attending the Commonwealth Games over the years. In our very first games we won a medal in boxing with Kenneth Hopkins punching his way to bronze in the 71 kg division.Boxing has contributed two more medals to PNG’s overall medal tally of nine at the Commonwealth Games.  These medals have come from lawn bowls,shooting, swimming and weightlifting. Our first gold came courtesy of Geua Tau when she defeated New Zealand’s Millie Cecilia Khan 25-18 in lawn bowls (women's singles) during the 1990 Commonwealth Games.Papua New Guinea's second gold medal came in 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, when Ryan Pini won the men's 100m butterfly event in swimming, with a time of 52.64 seconds. The race united the nation as thousands of Papua New Guineans celebrated with Ryan and Dika Toua, who had won silver in weightlifting at the same games, when they returned home for a ticker-tape parade.