Jone Delai is one of Fiji’s most outstanding athletes and the only Fijian sprinter to qualify under the ‘A’ standard for any Olympic Games. He was born in Naidrodro, Ba and was a member of the Ba Athletics Association before joining the Suva Athletics Association.
Jone first represented Fiji at the 1990 Oceania Athletics Championships held in Suva where he won Bronze in the 100m in a time of 10.92s.
His list of achievements include the following:
- 1991 – South Pacific Games, PNG: 100m Bronze, 4x100m Relay Silver
- 1993 – South Pacific Mini Games, Vanuatu: 100m Gold, 200m Gold, 4x100m Relay Gold, 4x400m Relay Gold
- 1994 – Oceania Championships, Auckland: 100m 10.63s Gold, 200m 21.55s Gold
- 1995 – South Pacific Games, Tahiti: 100m 10.34s Gold, 200m 21.20s Gold, 4x400m Relay Gold, 4x100m Relay Silver
- 1996 – Olympic Games Atlanta: 100m 10.42s 4th in Heat 10; 4x100m Relay 5th in Heat 3
- 1997 – South Pacific Mini Games, Pago Pago: 10.52s Gold, 4x100m Relay 40.15s Gold
- 1997 – Stockton, USA – 100m 10.26s** National Fiji Record
- 1997 – World Athletics Championships: 100m 10.32s Heats, 10.47 1/4 finals
- 1998 – Commonwealth Games, Kuala Lumpur: 100m 10.51s 6th 1/4 final, 200m 21.74s 7th 1/4 final, 4x100m Relay 6th in heats
- 1999 – South Pacific Games, Guam: 4x100m Relay Gold 40.48s, 100m Bronze 10.79s
- 2003 – SPG, Fiji: 100m Silver 10.90s, 4x100m Relay 41.03s Silver
- 2005 – SP Mini Games, Paula: 100m 10.73s Silver, 4x100m Relay 41.97s Silver
- 2006 – Commonwealth Games, Melbourne: 100m 10.8s 4th Heat 6
- 2007 – SPG, Apia: 100m 10.66s Gold, 4x100m Relay 40.60s Gold
For his outstanding performances, the ‘Pacific King of Sprints’ was named Sportsman of the Year in 1993, recognizing his 4-Gold medal haul at the South Pacific Mini Games held in Vanuatu and again in 1995 for his hat trick of 3 Gold medals and 1 Silver at the South Pacific Games in Tahiti.
At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta Jone proudly led the Fiji Team as its flagbearer.
Jone’s 100m South Pacific Games record of 10.34s set in Tahiti in 1995 stood for almost 20 years, narrowly being beaten at the 2013 Pacific Mini Games by Banuve Tabakaucoro in a time of 10.33s.
Seventeen years on, Jone’s 100m 10.26s time set in the USA in 1997 is still a Fiji National Record yet to be broken.
Now in retirement, -, Jone is putting back into his sport as a coachand has guided many of Fiji’s top sprinters including Lepani Naivalu, Fiji’s first Olympic Medalist at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games. In 2010 Jone won the Fiji Sports Coach of the Year and was subsequently nominated and won the Pacific Games Coach of the Year in the same year. Currently Jone is the Suva Grammar School Athletics Coach and has travelled as coach with many athletic teams to Oceania Championships and South Pacific Games. He is on the Athletics Coaching Team to the PNG Pacific Games in 2015.
For his outstanding achievements in Athletics over a span of 17 years, FASANOC is proud to induct JONE DELAI into the Fiji Sports Hall of Fame for the year 2014.