Fiji’s Va’a team recorded its best ever performance during the 17th Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands.
Team Fiji Va’a marked the start of the competition with a gold medal win to Elenoa Vateitei in the women’s V1 and bronze to the women’s V12 500m race on Monday.
Throughout the week, the women’s and men’s V6 paddlers clinched silver and bronze respectively in the 1500m race.
Their competition ended on a high with another gold to Vateitei in the V1 16km, silver and bronze for the women’s and men’s V6 24km marathon respectively.
Team manager Makayla Halter said the performance and results acquired were well above expectations.
“This year is definitely the best performance that Va’a has ever set in the Pacific Games. It’s the first time that Va’a has ever won gold medals and to be able to come away with silver and bronze is more than what we could’ve expected and we are very proud of them.
“This performance isn’t by accident; these athletes have been for past 14 months have been training from 4.30am from Monday into Saturday. They’ve lost a lot of time with their families, they’ve committed so much that they’ve missed out on all other things but we all saw that their hard-work is showing on the water. It’s not by chance; they’ve been putting in the hard-work, the dedication and its showing,” the former paddler stated.
“It’s really awesome to be here and see the performance that our team has put out there, the medals they’ve won and also the effort that they are putting in, controlling the race, the way that they are presenting themselves on and off the water so yeah I’m very proud of the team.”
They hope that this performance will pave the way for the future of the sport in Fiji.
“For the future of Va’a, it’s such a small sport and the fact that we can show to Fiji that this is a sport that you guys should come and try so hopefully next year we can get a lot of newcomers who will make up our team in the next Games.
“We want to grow as this sport is important in the Pacific so hopefully with our performance we can encourage new people to come and try out.”
