WHEN she was a young girl while walking home from school with her mum, an aeroplane flew above them.

As they sat under that tree on the hill in Lodoni that day, Litia Naiqato turned to her mother and said she would travel on an aeroplane just like that one day.

Many years later, this 29-year-old of Dakuinuku, Sawakasa in Tailevu is doing just that — travelling the globe on much bigger planes as she continues to make her name on the rugby field, locally and abroad, and at the same fast-building a trademark of her menacing hit-tackles and off-loads, which have been compared with Fiji 7s players such as Pio Tuwai and Semi Kunatani.

Since returning from a back injury, the lanky prop has achieved her first task — proving her worth to be selected for the Fijiana side to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.