THE Fiji Bowling team will have to exchange the traditional grass lawn surface for an artificial one when competing in the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea next month.
The team has not been able to train on one because there is not any in Fiji.
Fiji Bowling Team manager Curtis Mar said the unavailability of an artificial turf was a constraint in their efforts towards the regional meet as it was something the players were not used to.
“This is an important event for us because we are using that as a buildup for the Asia Pacific Games which serves as a qualifier for the World Bowls meet and the fact that we haven’t had proper training facilities serves as a drawback,” he said.
He added he was pleased with the performance of the players in the last week’s Sunny West Bowling Tournament which ended on a high with the women’s national team winning the fours discipline.
“Preparation for the games has been fantastic so far with the women and the men’s respectively showing consistent performance in the Sunny West Tournament and a few of them are participating in this week’s South Pacific Bowling Tournament,” Mar said.
Early last week 10 players had been selected, five men and women respectively to represent the nation at the regional meet next month.
Semesa Naiseruvati and Radhika Prasad are to play in the singles event. Arun Kumar, David Aitcheson, Rajnesh Prasad, Waisea Turaga have been selected to play in the fours discipline with Turaga joining Naiseruvati to play pairs and the remainder of the team will play the triples discipline.
For the women’s team Litia Tikoisuva, Cheral Mar, Elizabeth Moceiwai and Sarote Hiagi compete in the fours discipline with the latter to join Prasad teaming up for the pairs and the rest playing triples.
* Pacific Games coverage courtesy of BSP
