Archery Fiji will be defending their three gold medals at the 17th Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands.
Archery recorded its best-ever performance in the 2019 Games in Apia, Samoa, claiming three gold, a silver, and three bronze medals.
This was split amongst three-time Olympian Robert Elder, the husband-and-wife team of Fred and Lisa Leota – all three have retired from the sport.
Head coach and former national representative George Fong said the onus was on the current team to continue the legacy set four years ago.
“What this means is that the current team has big boots to fill, and a strong legacy to maintain,” Fong said.
“In order to give the new team the best advantage, we have worked to get our debutants acclimated to the level of international competition they will be facing.
“This was accomplished through exposure to high-level competition this year, at international tournaments like the Oceania Championships and Australian Nationals.
“We hope the experience will show them how to handle pressure, maintain their nerve, and perform at their best in the upcoming Pacific Games.”
Five archers have been chosen to represent Fiji and four of them would be competing at the Pacific Games for the first time.
“We hope to build on the successes of our previous gold medallists, who have retired after the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa.
“We have 2 recurve men, Nathan Kirk and Kavi Gounder. Nathan has been shooting since 2019 and is the current President of World Archery Fiji and a structural engineer by profession.
“He is the Managing Director of NRW Macallan. Kavi is a dual citizen of Fiji and Australia. He works as a consultant, living and training in Sydney at the Sydney Olympic Park Archers (SOPA) club.”
“Our two compound archers are Patrick Nadan and Jason Chute. Patrick is the only athlete with previous Pacific Games experience in archery, having attended in 2019. He works in Grants Finance and is a Chevening Scholar. Jason started archery in 2018 and is attending his first Pacific Games. He is a photographer and filmmaker and is looking to continue a long sporting career being a former Fiji Olympian in swimming,” Fong explained.
The archery competition begins on November 21 at DC Park.
