Fiji weightlifting coach Henry Elder is calling for more financial support and investment towards individual sports for events such as the Pacific Games.
Elder responded to a question regarding the collective approach needed to boost athlete’s performance as Fiji was yet to win a gold medal with competition nearing completion on day six in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
“We have potential for three medals for each division, for the women and men there are 10 medals up for grabs, times that by three (snatch, clean and jerk, total). There’s a lot of medals to be won in weightlifting and the key is for us to identify where we can win medals and allocate some resources,” the former Fiji athletics rep said.
“We know who the big guns are in terms of sports in Fiji, where all the supporters are but in saying that a tram of seven or 11 brings back one medal, I’m talking about here at the Pacific Games, the Commonwealth Games and also the Olympics. However, the potential of winning a lot of medals are in sports like ours, swimming, taekwando and athletics where you have multiple events.
“We can win gold medals and we just want a small piece, if not a piece then the crumbs of that cake that’s given to rugby, rugby league and to netball. Just a small piece that can help us facilitate our winning competition for Fiji.
“There are so much potential out there but we need infrastructure and support system. For that to happen we need the finance, we need everything to take these athletes to top competitions, we need specialised coaches and training.
“We scrape the bottom of the pot every time, most of the time we get nothing so it’s important that we are looked at, we do a lot of work, people need to understand the struggles that some of these athletes go through, some of them face a challenge in having just a decent meal.”
Elder said every national team flying Fiji’s flag in any international competition deserves a little assistance from the government.
“We went to Samoa with no money, my athletes slept on the floor of a friend’s house because we didn’t have any more money to assist us. We couldn’t pay for a hotel so while everybody else slept on their beds, Weightlifting Fiji athletes who are representing the provinces of Rotuma, Macuata, Cakaudrove, Ba, Lau, Rewa had to sleep on the floor.
“That’s the struggle that we face, we need some eyes on us because these are the children of Fiji, the forgotten ones but we can win medals. We have proven three years in a row in the Commonwealth Games with back to back medals and we’ll win more in the next one so let’s share a piece of the cake to a sport like ours.”