Team Fiji Taekwondo hopes that the sport will win its first gold medal at this year’s Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
Team section manager Nimesh Narayan said the sport hoped to take five men and three women athletes in November.
“The process has been long, but we are confident that the athletes that we have chosen to represent the country will make everyone proud.”
Nimesh said they were trying to have more women to participate in the sport and increased the team from two women athletes to three.
“These women athletes have proven themselves during trials and our fitness tests and are medal potentials at this year’s games,” he said.
Nimesh said the sport had yet to win a gold medal at the Pacific Games but was hopeful that it could change this year.
“As a national federation, our expectation from our athletes is gold or silver,” he said.
Nimesh said one of the challenges for them was maintaining a high level of fitness going into the games.
“We have seen athletes from Tahiti and New Caledonia and their fitness levels are very impressive.
“We are upgrading our training program in the hopes that it will give us an advantage but we will also look at the welfare of our athletes because we don’t want any injuries going into the games,” he said.
The team will also depend on the experience of Australian-based athlete Richard Lin who Nimesh said was one they were looking at to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifiers later in the year.
To date, Team Fiji Taekwondo has won nine medals at the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa which were all silver and bronze medals.
Taekwondo kicks off competitions on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, and will conclude its competitions on Friday, December 1, 2023.
Tae kwon do at the Pacific Games has been contested since 1995 when it was introduced for the tenth edition at Papeete, Tahiti.
Women’s tae kwon do was added in 1999 for the games in Guam.
The men’s and women’s individual competitions have eight weight classes each in accordance with World Taekwondo classifications as of 2019.
There are also team events for men’s and women’s competitions.
