TODAY, The Fiji Times takes you back, our readers, to Saturday August 20, 1988, when the Fiji Times/Qantas-sponsored Olympic fun run was staged in Suva – the month prior to the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.
On its Monday August 22 edition, it reported the participation of 711 runners who took off at 8:30am on the dot that day, signalled by a gun shot.
It reported that Olympic athletics representative Davendra Prakash Singh won this 10-kilometre Fiji fun run with a time of 32.32 minutes.
Singh, reportedly a South Pacific Games 3000m steeplechase silver medallist was one of the four leading runners up to the 3km mark along Ratu Sukuna Road in Suva.
Singh pulled away from the half-way mark and maintained his lead all the way.
His time was 0.18 seconds off Binesh Prasad’s record of 32.14 minutes which he clocked at the ninth annual run in 1987.
Veteran Shri Chand Mushroom came second and Vikash Singh third at 33.13 and 33.27 minutes, respectively.
Singh, Mushroom, Vikash and Moses Zarak who came fourth made their break at the top of Ratu Sukuna Rd, but with 4km to go, Singh and Khan were leading but Mushroom’s speed and determination earned him the second spot.
Singh, in an interview with the newspaper, said after the race that his preparations for the Olympic Games in September had paid off.
“This just shows how fit I am,” he had told the newspaper.
Auckland visitor Rosie Cunningham, 43, was the first female home, clocking 40.41 minutes, but did not qualify for the return trip to Honolulu because she did not meet the three-month residency requirement.
However, the first local woman home and overall second place-getter — Labasa’s Salome Tabuatalei clocked 43.01 minutes.
Tabuatalei was later treated at the CWM Hospital for dehydration.
The other person who required medical attention was Jacques Nicole who was picked up by the St John Ambulance at the last kilometre track.
Third in the women’s category was former Fiji rep Anasa Navavia at 45.48 minutes.
This newspaper reported that the youngest runner to complete the race was seven-year-old Ryan Gavin with a time of 68.28 minutes.
