A two hundred meter grass track, superman vests, dancing spectators, rugby boots and athletes wearing sunglasses is something you’d expect to see at the Northern FMF Chow Games and yes you did read that right, rugby boots.
992 athletes from 11 districts converged at Labasa’s Subrail Park over the last 2 days with the help of over 100 volunteers to compete in what the North may call, the biggest organized primary school athletics event this side of the friendly north.
A pretty slow start on day 1, nevertheless the pace picked up and the heat turned on when 3 records were broken and 1 record equaled as Macuata North claimed 2 of those records and went into day 2 with a 4 gold advantage over Seaqaqa.
Much drama in the dying stages of day 2 as Macuata North, who led for the most part of the games, failed to hold off a fiery Seaqaqa who came from 3rd place on the overall medal tally to pip them by 2 gold medals.
Relentless in their quest to improve on last year’s 7th place finish and despite coming in second this year in both the girls’ and boys’ division to Macuata North and Labasa 2 respectively, Seaqaqa’s total gold medal count saw to them snatching the overall title away from defending champions Labasa 1 who finished 4th on the overall.
Seaqaqa finished their 2017 campaign with 16 gold, 7 silver and 9 bronze while Macuata North came in 2nd with 14 gold, 15 silver and 10 bronze. Labasa 2 finished 3rd with 13 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze.
For full results, click here and for full medal tally, click here.
Story by: Eugene Vollmer