Ballantine Memorial School stole the show in the cheerleaders’ competition at the Fiji finals at the ANZ Stadium with their rendition of pompom girls moves and dances as the three-day competition ended on Saturday.
The stars of the girls from Delainavesi were Mavesi Primary School Year 4 students, Olivia Vuetaki of Lau, and Ana Ralesi. The school is the feeder to BMS. Ralesi was the crowd favourite. She might not have the model figure of a cheerleader, but her Fijian bui-ni-ga (hairstyle) and moves kept the crowd cheering. She is from Naitasiri.
“It is a great day for me. I enjoyed dancing in front of a lot of people. I was not ashamed and I knew I helped entertain people. Best of all, I am a primary school student participating in the Coca-Cola Games, a competition every school child wants to compete in,” she said.
“One day I will be among the athletes.” Vuetaki said: “I was nervous at the start, but when I saw people cheering, I knew I had to do my best to help our team win.”
The team’s uniform, was in the Ballentine colours — dark green — even the shoes. Their teacher Jiuteci Lesumairotorua said: “Those are our old cheer group’s uniforms.
“We did not prepare anything special and we had two weeks to prepare because we wanted the girls to concentrate on their exams. The whole attire cost couple of hundreds of dollars and we thank the girls for performing well.”
