Concerns have been raised about the organisation by the Fiji Primary Schools Athletics Association (FPSAA) of the Tuckers Ice-Cream Fiji Primary Schools Athletics Championship last week in Suva.
Lavenia Naivalu, a parent of the Yasawa athletics team, mentioned 20 athletes from the district were denied participation as their names were not present in any official list for events in the championship.
She claimed her son and the other Yasawa athletes were not allowed to take part due to technical difficulties made known to her by an official.
“I had learnt from the officials that there was an online system put up for this event and the whole system had crashed on the day so they misplaced all the names,” Naivalu told The Fiji Times.
Nearly $20,000 in funds were collected to help the 105-member team from Yasawa in its preparations for the two-day meet.
Meanwhile, FPSAA president Patrick Bower acknowledged the incident, stating the complaint raised by Naivalu was taken very seriously and they would put out a response in due course.
“We’re in the process (and) we’re trying to see all of this. We can’t get any response so far from the people who are handling it,” Bower highlighted.
He added when a full report would be compiled, then the report would be sent to the Yasawa team and the Sports Minister.
Meanwhile, in response to questions sent by this newspaper, Minister for Sports Jese Saukuru echoed Bower’s sentiments of not taking the matter lightly, however, the ministry would wait on FPSAA before making a move.
