PNG athletes desperately want to be allowed into Australia to train for the Olympics after using makeshift facilities for months

Just months out from the Tokyo Games, Dika Toua is lifting weights in sweltering heat underneath her coach’s family’s house in Papua New Guinea.

She and fellow Olympic hopeful, Morea Baru, would normally be preparing at a specialist centre in New Caledonia with their Australian coach, but like most things this year, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted those plans.

“Because of the pandemic, we’ve all left our usual training regimes and we’ve come back home,” Toua explains.

The coronavirus has derailed Olympic preparations across the world, but it’s being especially hard felt in PNG.

Most of PNG’s athletes would normally be training overseas. But travel restrictions have forced many to stay at home without access to the basics they need to…