Now that was a beauty! When the curtains fell on the 50th Fiji Secondary Schools Athletics Finals at the National Stadium in Suva yesterday, our field of stars just got better!
We have a host of names that must be placed on a special list for further development. We need to nurture them! We need to unveil their true potential and hit the world with their exploits and talent!
To not do so would be tantamount to neglect and ignorance of their potential and value!
We have the calibre of athletes that deserve support to live their dreams. We must raise their profile and assist them to attain their hopes and aspirations!
Not all our stars came off the big schools.
Marist Brothers High School and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial High School took out top honours yesterday. They were strategic and came off with well-deserved victories.
However, in the face of that major achievement sat the exploits of athletes that came off lesser known schools.
Francis Bakaniceva, of International Secondary School Suva, powered his way to win the intermediate boys 200 metres race in Suva yesterday. While ISS managed two gold medals at the three-day competition, Bakaniceva ran a race he would remember for the rest of his life, defeating runners from schools such as Marist Brothers High School and Suva Grammar School in the final.
It epitomised what we have always known about the annual event.
This is one event where every athlete has an equal chance to win gold. It does not necessarily mean only the big schools will always win gold!
We remember the late barefoot queen of the tracks Reena Devi who dominated the schools’ event back in 1984. She came all the way from Labasa!
This is why the Fiji Finals is special.
When all things are said and done, athletes who train hard, have a fair chance of winning gold, and making a name for themselves at the highest level of this athletics competition.
Now the big question remains!
What’s next?
We look up to the powers that be, to the Fiji Secondary Schools Athletics Association, FASANOC, and Athletics Fiji, to lay the groundwork for these athletes to be groomed into Olympic gold medallists!
Consider this! Junior girls 100m winner and record holder Sera Nasilivata, 15, clocked a time of 12.30s in the 100m finals on Thursday. She was the fastest female athlete this year.
The Year 10 student of MGM broke a 32-year-old record of 12.34s set in 1993 by Masilina Rakai who represented Ba Methodist High School.
Her time was faster than the senior girls’ blue ribbon event winner Claudie David of Suva Grammar School who ran 12.63s and intermediate girls 100m winner Lydia Wairapoa also of MGM who stopped the time at 12.63s.
We challenge the powers that be to pull out all stops and do something about nurturing this amazing athlete!
Enough of the excuses! Find the funds! Fans will want to see a pathway created for such athletes!
There were many others unveiled over the past three days! We have a field of superstars in the making! We have raw talent. Imagine pulling in financial incentives and the best in terms of training and diet, and a support system! Imagine what we can achieve at the highest level of the sport, at the Commonwealth Games and at the Olympic Games! We have time on our side! We have an amazing crop of athletes! What we need now is less talking, and more action! Urgently please!
