A former Fiji football captain has called on the government to establish a sports institute to help athletes compete at the highest level.
The request comes after Fiji’s below par performance during the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands, where we finished sixth overall.
Tagi Vonolagi, who led the Fiji football team in the 1990s, is also a former coach and was part of a Sports Development Unit team under the Fiji Sports Council that monitored athletes of different sports.
Reacting to a call from veteran sports commentator Satish Narain for sporting federations to lift their game in the wake of the Pacific Games result, Vonolagi said Fiji needed a “sports school” to help monitor athletes.
“We won our own 2003 Pacific Games as host with the involvement of all sports and the SDU (sports development unit) of the Fiji Sports Council,” Vonolagi posted on Facebook.
“The role of the SDU is to sit down with team coaches and management, draw out training programs, sports education programs. Monitor training, run fitness tests for all sports up to competition day. ”
Two years program and supervision was done in 2003. Results speaks for itself,” he added.
He called for scholarships to be awarded to all senior students who won gold medals and “we won’t run out of athletes”.
“If we don’t act now, India rugby and other small rugby countries will start beating us in our own game.”
