PAPUA NEW GUINEA – When the Papua New Guinea team marches into the stadium at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in Australia in April, there will be one notable absentee – the track queen of the Pacific, Toea Wisil.

The athlete has been disciplined for unsporting actions at the Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila three months ago after she was beaten by Cook Islands’ sprinter Patricia Taea .

It is the latest twist in a career that has seen one of the most talented track athletes ever produced in the Pacific never quite reach the heights that a succession of coaches have said she is capable of achieving.

Wisil has won numerous gold medals at successive Pacific Games, and just last year she became the first athlete from PNG to take out the Australian sprint double, winning both the 100 metres and 200 metres at the national championships.

Those performances should have been the catalyst to go to the next level, and under the watchful eyes of husband and wife coaching team, Tony and Alison Fairweather, one of her key targets was the 100 metres final at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

But instead relations between the athlete and her coach began to deteriorate, Wisil’s training regime began to tail off, and after a poor performance at the World Championships in London, matters came to a head.

“Her training dropped off, her attitude dropped off,” Fairweather said. “I said to her you’ve got to put more effort into your training and be a bit more disciplined. We were arguing a lot, which I didn’t like.

By the time it came to the Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu last December, Wisil and the Fairweathers had parted company.

Fairweather said there was still no excuse for the athlete’s behaviour in Port Vila, where she suffered a shock loss in the 200 metres final to her former training partner, Patricia Taea from Cook Islands.

“The vibes were bad there and I thought they were good friends and it shouldn’t be like this,” Fairweather said.

“I felt Toea was playing mind games, there was no need for that, and I think it all boiled down to the fact that Patty won the 200, quite convincingly, and Toea, instead of coming up for the medal presentation, snubbed it.”

It is that action that has cost Wisil her place at the Commonwealth Games, with Athletics PNG opting to impose a suspension amid the full backing of the National Olympic Committee.

“The PNG Olympic committee has upheld the decision of Athletics PNG in view of the fact that it was a serious breach of protocol,” secretary-general Auvita Rapilla said.

While it is a bitter blow for the PNG team to head to the Gold Coast without their star athlete, the president of Athletics PNG, Tony Green, said Wisil’s career was by no means over yet.

“We have a full time coach in country for at least the next two years under an IAAF funded program and he’s working with Toea in Garoka,” Green said.

“Toea is still on an Olympic scholarship, that’s her medium-term focus. So she’s looking forward to the Pacific Games next year, and the Tokyo Olympics.”

Every coach that has ever worked with Wisil has said much the same thing – masses of talent but not always the easiest person to work with.

It is a problem that Green acknowledges, but one that he believes can be overcome.

“It’s not the first time she has split with her coach but now that we’ve got Toea back in PNG, I think it’ll be easier for us to work with her and manage her better. It’s been a bit difficult while she’s been in Australia,” Green said.

Wisil has already indicated that she plans to retire after the Tokyo 2020 Games.

- ABC