“The kids (athletes) outperformed themselves, they went past our target.”
These were the words of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial High School principal Rageshwar Prasad, as he saluted the school’s athletes for achieving a clean sweep of the boys and girls division of the Coca-Cola Games Suva Zone One meet, which ended yesterday.
Prasad commended the athletes for their strong showing at the meet, as he mentioned how the male athletes aimed to bag 15 gold medals and then walked away with 21.
He added the female athletes aimed to win 30 gold medals; they bagged 31.
New qualifying times and distances for the Fiji Finals this year, he said, may have compelled MGM’s athletes to perform above and beyond the expectations set for them.
“With the new qualifying times and distances that have come up, it will need a lot of effort from the kids to really make it through,” Prasad stated.
“I think that is another reason why our kids outperformed themselves to make sure that they made that time or distance that is required.”
Preparing for the 2026 athletics season meant an earlier start to training, as he revealed it already began from November last year.
And with four months of preparation paying off yesterday with the clean sweep, the school’s next aim is to achieve a strong finish at this year’s Coca-Cola Games next month.
MGM is the champion of the girls division, having won it last year with 20 gold, eight silver and five bronze medals while the boys finished seventh with two gold, two silver and five bronze medals.
Recording a dominant show of athletic grit and might also meant each of the school’s 85 athletes to the zone meet had to prove they were hungry for the win on the track and field.
“One thing the students must have seen was that their wins did not come easily; they had to fight through every medal that was at stake.”
Meanwhile, the next zone meet to be held will be the Coca-Cola Games Nadi Zone competition at Churchill Park in Lautoka from March 24-25.
