IT was sheer commitment and determination for Epeli Rabua to win Fiji’s first Oceania swimming gold medal after 14 years during the 2018 Oceania Swimming Championship held in Papua New Guinea last week.
Rabua won a gold medal in the men’s 50 metres breaststroke with a time of 29.34 seconds, 1/100 of a second ahead of Jonathan Rutter of New Zealand who clocked 29.35 seconds.
“It was a proud moment for me to win a gold medal in the Oceania Swimming Championship,” he said yesterday.
“It feels amazing to captain the squad and win a gold after 14 years. I had been training hard since the Commonwealth Games and it helped me to prepare myself for the competition. We had some intense training sessions before the competition.”
Rabua, 19, said he would now focus on the other competitions.
“The result was the outcome of all the good training. The competition level was high with the swimmers from Australia and New Zealand and we managed to push each other,” he said.
“Competing against the high level athletes helped me.” Fiji bagged one gold medal, three silver and four bronze medals.
