Team Fiji is currently in second place on the medal standings at the 14th Oceania Swimming Championships with eight golds behind powerhouse Australia’s 10 gold haul.
New Zealand sits in third place with four gold medals as Fiji continues to impress on the regional stage heading into the final night of pool competition this evening.
Fiji Aquatics vice president west Errol Taylor says the championship was showing a major shift in competitiveness across Oceania, with more island nations now challenging the traditional dominance of Australia and New Zealand.
“For a competition that was previously very heavily dominated by Australia and New Zealand, so much so that we had to have island medals introduced just to award the island countries because of that dominance, we are now seeing that level out,” Taylor said.
“It’s great to see the other Oceania countries come up and win medals and, as a board member, we’re ecstatic about how well Fiji is doing with our current medal count.”
Taylor says Team Fiji is confident of adding more gold medals on the final night of racing.
He highlighted strong performances in the freestyle events, with Tolu Young posting the fastest qualifying time in the men’s 50 metres freestyle while Anahira McCutcheon also topped the women’s 50m freestyle heats.
“We’re anticipating more gold medals tonight,” Taylor said.
“We’re hoping we can also contend for gold medals in the relays tonight as well.”
The evening session will begin at 6.30pm tonight at the National Aquatic Centre in Suva.
