Pacific Games discus bronze medallist Briana Rabakewa will be looking to book a spot in the national side for the Oceania Athletics Championships which will be held in Suva in June.
The 16-year-old competed at the Athletics Fiji Easter Championships at the HFC Bank Stadium on the weekend where Athletics Fiji head coach Albert Miller was on the lookout for athletes to represent the country at the Oceania.
The Year 11 student of Swami Vivekananda College in Nadi bagged a bronze medal for Team Fiji at the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands last year where she threw a distance of 42.51 metres.
“Training has been going well since the Pacific Games and I am looking to make the squad for the upcoming Oceania Championship,” she said.
Rabakewa competed in the discus event at the Coca-Cola Games last year but did not make the top eight.
However, she did not let this dampen her love for the sport where she continued training before finally being selected in the national squad for the Pacific Games, going on to bag a medal for Team Fiji.
“I’ve just returned from competing at the Queensland Championship where I managed to win gold in discus, this was about two weeks ago.”
The youngster threw a distance of 40.67m, where she now qualifies for the Australian Championship in Adelaide in the next few weeks.
“So I will be using these tournaments to help me prepare and try to impress our national selectors because I want to be part of the national team.”
Meanwhile, Rabakewa spoke of the challenges she faces in balancing training and her studies over the past few weeks.
“The biggest challenge for me is balancing my studies with training. This means I have to sacrifice a lot of things like hanging out with friends and other things people my age do.”
She will be one of the many athletes to look out at the Coca-Cola Games.
“Yes, I will be competing in the Coke games this year and I am looking forward to it.”
