APOLONIA Vaivai, Eileen Cikamatana and Manueli Tulo will lead their team to a tough competition for the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts games in Turkmenistan today.
They attended their first training along with Cikaimatana who flew in from New Caledonia.
National Coach Joe Vueti said the athletes had a medium intensity training session as the team was still adjusting to the time difference.
“It was Timothy Vakuruivalu’s 18th birthday and with that, the weightlifters are in high spirits heading into the competition,” he said.
“This competition will be of a higher standard than the Commonwealth Championship held at Gold Coast earlier this month and for the hosts, Asia is the strongest weight-lifting continent, having won 12 out of 15 Gold Medals in Rio 2016 so it’s going to be a tough battle for the lifters.”
The weight-lifting competition will see great competition from China, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Iran, India to name a few countries.
This will be a good exposure for Apolonia Vaivai and Eileen who have qualified for the Commonwealth Games 2018. A competition at this level will help them prepare well for next year’s games.
Manueli Tulo will be the first athlete to compete tomorrow at 2am (Fiji time).
Eileen Cikamatana was the flag bearer for Fiji at the opening ceremony.
