THE passion for the sport and the desire to do the country proud has kept Leslie Copeland and his coach James Goulding away from their families for the past five months.
The duo hardly stayed with their families in their quest to create history of winning an Olympic medal for the country.
And with few days remaining for the Olympics, Goulding is confident that their preparation is on the right track.
He said the sacrifice endured was slowly paying dividends.
Goulding said they had been working hard in their bid to create history and he had faith in Copeland to produce the goods required of him.
“Five months we have been training together, he’s been away from his family and I have been away from my family as well,” he said.
“In the past two months he has been coming to training on Mondays and leaves on Saturdays.
“He spends one day with his family and the rest of the days he is here with me training. These are sacrifices we have to make for the Rio Olympics.”
Goulding said hard work had slowly paid dividends as the national javelin record holder was on track to set personal best at the Rio Games.
He said Copeland had been consistent and had a good chance of securing a spot in the Rio Olympics final 12 medals play-off.
“He is confident to reach the final and as a coach, I have analyised his performance over the past seven months, he had thrown over 73m 32 times.
“That in itself is consistent and throwing some of these distances at a very low level of competition speaks volumes of his capabilities.
“At the recent Melanesian Games he recorded 79m despite the lack of competition.”
Goulding said the Olympics would motivate Copeland to set a record knowing the hard work he had put in.
“He has done the hard yards and I can see he has done a lot of sacrifices, he is so consistent.
“We are still loading and once we get to Rio we will rest more and prepare well for the Games.”
Meanwhile, Copeland said the Olympics would be an inspiration to his game.
He said the presence of other champion javelin throwers from around the globe would lift his performance.
“I finished 13th in the last Olympics and this time I will do my best to secure a spot in the final.”
“My target is to first secure a spot in the top 12 spots to be able and qualify for the medal play-offs.
“All athletes will come prepared for the Games since this is the biggest sporting competition in the world.”
Copeland has called on the people of Fiji to support him at the Rio Games.
“The support and prayers from the people will definitely boost the morale of the athletes inspiring us to work hard,” he said.
His aim is to break the national record of 81.76m and stamp his mark as the best javelin thrower in the country.
Copeland will depart the country for the Rio Games on Tuesday.
