By No Papua New Guinean can deny the magnitude of the Beijing Olympic butterfly event today. heats tonight. (EMTV has just confirmed that they will cross live to Beijing at 9:30pm. Race is at 9:40pm). This has been a long and hard journey for a man named Ryan Pini and the Pini family of Port Moresby. The sacrifices, the set backs, the costs and a dream held for more than a decade to reach the pinnacle of sporting excellence in his sport of swimming.
(Ryan Pini, second from left in front row)
So as the emails, phone calls, google searchs, facebook posts and blog comments on Ryan Pini keep pouring in a question one might ask is, what does Ryan Pini mean to you? Is it about an under dog coming good, (we tasted that when he won a gold in the Commonwealth Games). Is it some indication of PNG turning around after many years of financial troubles? Will it make us all PNG’eans better people? Will we take pride in who we are in the world and strive to be better country men/women? Will it launch a new generation of PNG athletes? Will we learn to not only dream but put into practice what we preach to actually achieve goals?
What exactly does all this excitement for Ryan Pini mean to us? Maybe we can answer some of these questions tomorrow but today tonight on the eve of his historic swim one man’s swimming dream will hold an entire country’s hopes.
Good Luck and God Speed Ryan!
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Update 10:30pm:
Ryan came in 5th tonight. A Great Effort on his part. I was sure looking forward to a Gold but we did our best and we’ve come a long way to get there. So a big hand to Ryan and all who assisted in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. Keep in mind that his Commonwealth Gold Medal time was 52.64 so I beleive this is yet another PB for him.
No worries Bro, Stap Wantaim Yu!!!
| 1 |  Kenya |
Jason Dunford | 51.14 OR | |
| 2 |  Australia |
Andrew Lauterstein | 51.37 | |
| 3 |  Japan |
Takuro Fujii | 51.50 | |
| 4 |  France |
Frederick Bousquet | 51.83 | |
| 5 |  Papua New Guinea |
Ryan Pini | 52.00 | |
| 6 |  Russia |
Nikolay Skvortsov | 52.26 | |
| 7 |  Canada |
Joe Bartoch | 52.90 | |
| 8 |  Germany |
Thomas Rupprath | 53.56 |
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Update 15/08/08
Here I was thinking it was all over last night when I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Ryan’s still in the Race…WHOOOHOOOO!!! So 1pm for all of you in PNG to watch the BIGGGEST RACE OF THE YEAR (outside of the Melbourne Cup that is).
Ryan’s going to need to go 2 secs faster for him to beat Phelps, and although at first I was like well it’s a long shot etc etc. Hell stuff it lets go all out…Lets Win this thing. GO Ryan!!!
A short interview with Ryan from Radio Australia here.
Today’s Line Up Below:
 Ukraine |
Sergii Breus | ||||
| France |
Frederick Bousquet | ||||
 China |
Feng Shi | ||||
 Brazil |
Kaio Almeida | ||||
| Australia |
Andrew Lauterstein | ||||
 Venezuela |
Albert Subirats Altes | ||||
 United States |
Ian Crocker | ||||
| United States |
Michael Phelps | ||||
 Serbia |
Milorad Cavic | ||||
| Ukraine |
Andrii Serdinov | ||||
 South Africa |
Lyndon Ferns | ||||
 Slovenia |
Peter Mankoc | ||||
| Papua New Guinea |
Ryan Pini | ||||
 New Zealand |
Corney Swanepoel | ||||
| Kenya |
Jason Dunford | ||||
| Japan |
Takuro Fujii | ||||
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Update 15/08/08 2.00pm
And there you have it folks, yet another PB of 51.62 and a hot ticket into the finals….THA FINALS BABYEEEEE!!!!!!!
| 1 | United States |
Michael Phelps | 50.97 | |
| 2 | Australia |
Andrew Lauterstein | 51.27 | |
| 3 | Kenya |
Jason Dunford | 51.33 | |
| 4 | Papua New Guinea |
Ryan Pini | 51.62 | |
| 5 | China |
Feng Shi | 51.68 | |
| 6 | Venezuela |
Albert Subirats Altes | 51.82 | |
| 7 | Ukraine |
Sergii Breus | 52.05 | |
| 8 | Brazil |
Kaio Almeida | 52.32 |
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Update 15/08/08 9.49pm
Okay so here we go, the last and final line up for tomorrows 100m Butterfly Finals. 8 Men, 3 Chances for a medal, 1 Golden Opportunity and a hell of a trip for all of us here in PNG.
| Serbia |
Milorad Cavic | |||
| Kenya |
Jason Dunford | |||
| Ukraine |
Andrii Serdinov | |||
| Papua New Guinea |
Ryan Pini | |||
| United States |
Michael Phelps | |||
| United States |
Ian Crocker | |||
| Japan |
Takuro Fujii | |||
| Australia |
Andrew Lauterstein |
12 comments
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August 14, 2008 at 3:39 am
Solo
“one man’s swimming dream will hold an entire country’s hopes”. I love this line.
Sporting can contribute significantly to national building, nationalism and unity”. For PNG to win gold in the Olympics will require a lot of government investment in sports beginning at the pre-school, primary, high school and tertiary levels. Without any investment we can only hope for only one person to bring back a medal for PNG. May be if Ryan wins will bring some vigour into investmenting in sports for PNG. Good luck Ryan Pini, we are proud of you!
August 14, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Margaret
Hi Emmanuel,
Much appreciation for the updates. The comment “one man’s dream and a country’s hopes”, brought tears to my eyes and I believe must have had the same impact on those that came across it. Last night while watching Ryan, I felt so proud of him. Em tru tru stret, it has been Ryna’s dream and yet desperately all Papua New Guineian’s hope and dream too.His dream has repelled out and made a great impact on everyone. Ryan, we all share the same common ground. Jointly we stand with you, Ryan we can make it and make it BIG.
Thanking you sincerely
Margaret
August 14, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Emmanuel
Thank you Margaret, I guess it’s the only way I can contribute to this swimming event and to give Ryan support. Thank you for stopping by.
August 15, 2008 at 3:44 am
Tania
Hi Emmanuel,
getting very exciting in Beijing right now! Ryan is through to the final of the 100metre Butterfly. He is already a winner!! Enjoying tapping in to the excitement back home through your blog.
We will all be behind him when he steps onto the blocks tomorrow about midday our time I think)
Best wishes.
GO RYAN!!
Tania,
back in Brissie.
August 15, 2008 at 4:23 am
Emmanuel
Definitely is exciting times Tania and great to hear from you. We all wait for the big day tomorrow. And you better get some rest after all that traveling
August 15, 2008 at 6:03 am
Boni
Hi Emmanuel,
How exciting to hear that Ryan is in for a big one. Yeah a top moment for PNG. Thanks for updating on this blog.
August 15, 2008 at 8:26 am
kumul.karai
Just awesome! He is so brilliant under pressure that i think tomorrow could be another huge surprise for us!
August 15, 2008 at 8:46 am
Raymond
Go Brother!!
Stap with you all the way -PNG is proud of you!!
OUR “One in a million there”…
Ray
August 15, 2008 at 10:36 am
Debbie Manley
Wow…. Ryan….Wow….
It is just BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT swimming all the way……. I’m soooooooo looking forward to tomorrow…..
Just awesome…..Ryan!
With you all the way…..Wantoks from Dubai…..
August 15, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Rob
What a performance! Go for it mangi mosbi, we’re with you all the way.
Go Ryan Go!
Wantok,
Armidale, NSW
August 19, 2008 at 8:37 am
Jeffery
Ryan is a genuine hero to compete among the best in the world. It was one of these moments that you feel like to embracing the TV screen because you have so much joy in One person’s courage to make it to the finals. It is so marvellous to talk about. To know about Ryan Pini and PNG qualifying for the 100 metres butterfly finals is so sweet.
We have so much Love for Great Pini.
“Keep on shining”
Jeffery
October 28, 2008 at 7:26 am
EMTV, Kundu 2 in rights tussle « the Masalai blog
[...] me of the Olympics and how EMTV made no effort at all to show our PNG atheletes expect televising Ryan Pini’s race because they could get it cheapely from an Australian TV [...]