They were known in Queensland as the “pioneering Fiji summer boys” after five weeks of swim training at The Southport School (TSS), Australia.
Herbert Epeli Rabua, who was sponsored by the Fiji Sports Commission, was accompanied by Viliame Waka and Thomas Liebreis in the five-week camp.
Team head coach and vice-president East for Fiji Swimming Association Viliame Waka said the purpose of the training camp was for them to better understand and gain intrinsic and extrinsic benefits outside of training physically and psychologically as per top Queensland swimmers.
“The boys went to learn, adapt and adopt the swimming culture and tradition in a top tier swimming centre with world-class swimmers.
“They need to learn the culture before they train, when they train, on how much they’re supposed to give in and after training,” said Waka.
The first of four training sessions that will be organised in future, Waka believes that this training camp would help swimmers build a platform to improve competitive swimming in their club and also in Fiji as a whole.
“Our boys have adapted well into the training regime and have adopted the tempo and intensity of the training system at The Southport School. We hope to build this relationship further to establish TSS to be the centre of development for swimming for Fiji and maybe the small Pacific nations,” added Waka.
The next swim training camp will be in November during the school holidays.
