The Fiji Sports Council has launched a six-week off-season athletics program to address the lack of structured training for students outside regular school competitions.
This is in line with building Fiji’s athletes to Olympic level.
The program is a collaboration between the Fiji Sports Council and Athletics Fiji aimed to fix what has been a growing concern for the sport of athletics over the years.
Coordinated by FSC athletics officer Bola Petueli Tafoou, it focuses on preparing students, particularly those who have not participated in athletics before, to compete at a higher level.
“The main goal is to help students who have no off-season training plans,” Tafoou said.
“Many talented students are unfit because only core groups trained by clubs and coaches get proper preparation. We want to give every student a chance to compete with the best.”
Students are taught the fundamentals of acceleration, endurance, jumps, and throws.
Expert coaches like former Olympian Albert Miller, Pacific sprint King Banuve Tabakaucoro and Eugene Vollmer are working with participants.
“We teach the basics during this general preparation phase to get athletes ready for upcoming inter-house competitions and beyond,” Tafoou added.
The initiative aims to lay a foundation for long-term athletic success, as champions are built in the off-season, not during the competition phase.
The camp which started on Monday will run for six weeks culminating to January 21.
All progress will be assessed through fitness tests and competitive results at inter-house and zone levels.
