JUDOKA Josateki Naulu is working hard on becoming Fiji’s next Olympian and join the rugby and football teams in the Rio Olympic Games.
Last weekend Naulu participated at the Oceania Judo Open in Australia.
The Tunuloa, Cakaudrove native came fourth in the 81 kg event losing to Great Britain in the semi-finals on penalties before conceding defeat to Argentina in the bronze play-offs.
“I was targeting the final but in this sport anything can happen especially when every single competitor is looking for Olympic points to qualify,” Naulu said.
He attends Ryutsu Keizai University on an IOC Scholarship, which he said he was grateful for.
Josateki who fights in the 81kg category was also part of Team Fiji to the London Olympic Games in 2012 losing to Montenegro in the second round.
He said he was fortunate of the support he was receiving from the NPO Oceania Sports Support Organisation with regards to his preparation.
“They have been hands on with my training program here in Japan,” he said.
“Training has been tough but it is something I am prepared to go through to qualify for Rio.”
Naulu said there were a few more tournaments he had to participate in before qualifying until April 2016 which is when Olympic qualification ends.
“There are quite a lot of tournaments that carry Olympic points from now until then, but due to limited funding we cannot afford to go to every one of these tournaments so there is a lot of planning to get more bang for the buck with the funding and tournaments that we do attend,” he said.
Josateki’s next tournament is at the Judo Grand Prix in Korea next week.
