Four of Fiji’s national athletes joined 50 children and adults in Suva to for the Fiji Run 24-1 to kick start the IAAF Run 24-1 We had about 50 plus participants and 3 Athletics Fiji officials. The 2 runners that finished ahead of the pack are Athletics Fiji National reps who are currently preparing for our Pacific Games in July. We had 4 national athletes attend the run as well.

The 4 national athletes, Albert Miller Jr. (sprints), Rajeshwar Prasad (distances), Stephen Sanday (middle distance, the fastest runner in 1500m at the South pacific) and Eugene Vollmer (triple jump and long jump) are all currently preparing for the Pacific Games in July.

Triple and long jumper, Eugene Vollmer said: “This is the first time Fiji has celebrated Global Running Day and hopefully in the years to come, the awareness will grow throughout our tiny Rugby loving island nation. The run was good, I enjoyed it. Just to come out and do something different. No need to be competitive, just take part and it will hopefully inspire other people to take up running as a way of life.”

Athletics in Fiji was set up in 1947. With only 2 synthetic tracks on the island most athletics’ events are held on a grass track. Marathon running is gaining in popularity with around 2000 participants in the annual Suva Marathon, organised by the Suva Marathon Club. This event is now the biggest marathon competition in the south pacific.

Story by: IAAF (03/06/2019)

National Record holder in the Shot Put, Mustafa Fall, set a new national record last weekend at the Kansas Relays, USA. Fall has become the first Fijian to throw the 7.26kg shot put 17.00m. In just under a year after joining Coffeyville University in the Fall semester of 2018, Mustafa quickly made a name for himself when he broke and set the Fiji national indoor record twice after finally pushing it out to an impressive 16.68m at the 2019 NJCAA Region VI Indoor Championships and it did not end there.

Fall pushed his outdoor national record to 16.21m and continually threatened the 17m barrier until his final breakthrough at the Kansas relays last weekend. In his first round throw, Fall putted to an impressive 16.74m and fouled his 2nd attempt. In his 3rd attempt, he set a new national record of 17.00m which sees him as the top performer in the Pacific this year and will be the one to look out for come the Pacific Games in Samoa.

One could safely say that Fiji has had a drought of competitive shot putters and discus throwers till Musatafa Fall putted his way into the national team claiming a 3^rd place finish at the 2015 south pacific games in Papua New Guinea with a throw of 15.78m. At the 2016 Melanesian Athletics Championships, Fall managed to win gold in the shot put and hurled the discus to a new personal best of 50.28m and beat 2016 No. 1 Pacific Ranked Debono of Papua New Guinea.

Fall is definitely one of Fiji’s most talented throwers as he has stamped his mark in the top 10 all-time throwers in Fiji where he sits as No. 1 in the shot put and No. 2 in the discus behind Mesulame Rakuro.

Story By: Athletics Fiji (25/04/2019)

The 2019 XVI Fiji Games Athletics Program will be held on Saturday the 20th of April as Athletics Fiji look towards bettering their outing from the 2015 Pacific Games and the 2017 Mini Pacific Games.

Medals will be awarded to the top 3 finishes per event in the Open Grade.

The squad’s preparations have been boosted by the return of reigning Pacific Games 100m sprint champion Banuve Tabakaucoro who has clocked 10.52s this season.

Kameli Sauduadua, Petero Veitaqomaki, Heleina Young, Shawntell Lockington, Ana Kaloucava and Eugene Vollmer have also been in top form producing season’s and personal bests throughout the 2018-2019 season.

Also in top form is USA based Mustafa Fall who’s consistently thrown over 16m this year in the shot put. There will also be some High School athletes who will use this year’s Coke Games to try and solidify their place if not push their way into the team.

Athletics Fiji is hoping to see an improvement of performances for the next couple of months as well as looking out for any outstanding performances during the three day Coca Cola Games that begin next week Tuesday (16/04/2019).

To enter:

• Complete registration/entry form  Entry Form

• Complete indemnity form  Indemnity Form  and

• Drop off your forms to the Athletics Fiji office at the National Hockey Centre, Laucala Bay, Suva Fiji

Story by: Athletics Fiji (12/0/2019)