THE four officials and 13 team members of the Fiji 7s rugby team to the Olympic Games will each receive another $20,000 for their gold medal win in Rio.
This was after the Vodafone Fiji- led consortium of sponsors which included Fiji Airways, C.J Patel Group of Companies, Telecom Fiji and HFC Bank yesterday handed over a $340,000 cheque to the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
Bainimarama, as the president of Fiji Rugby Union (FRU), thanked the sponsors individually for their genuine and unwavering support to FRU and for looking after the welfare of the players.
“This would be a great investment for the players and their families,” Bainimarama said.
He said the historic win brought people together and for one brief moment, Fiji became the world’s attention.
“There is so much to be thankful for, for this milestone achievement,” he said.
Vodafone chief executive officer Pradeep Lal said: “The players have delivered and earned their bonus as just rewards for their performance.
“We are therefore extremely proud of the achievements of the Vodafone Fiji 7s team.
“With back-to-back win in the World Sevens Series and gold medal winning performance at the Olympics, the team thoroughly deserves the status as the No.1 sevens team in the world,” Lal said.
“As just rewards for the blood, sweat and tears they have shed towards winning Fiji’s first ever Olympics medal, the sponsors are most delighted to reward the players and officials with a windfall $340,000 in cash bonuses.
This equates to around $20,000 in bonus to the each of the 17 players and officials who were part of the gold medal winning sevens team,” he said.
