Athletes Brave Wet Fiji Games

Hundreds of athletes braved the wet and windy conditions within the greater Suva area to participate in the 2019 Fiji Games which began on April 19th, 2019 and which was eventually won by defending Champion, Suva.

Suva dominated most sports which included Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Billiards and Snooker, Boxing, Darts, Golf, Powerlifting, Sailing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Indoor Volleyball and Weightlifting.

The Gold Medal tally was won by Suva with a total of 60 Gold medals, with closet rivals being Nadi and Rotuma who tied with 28 Gold medals each.   Nadi edged Rotuma on the overall Medal Tally with 22 Silver Medals ahead of Rotuma's 13 Silver medals.  Nadroga finished in third place with 11 Gold medals all from the sport of Boxing.  Other districts featuring on the Gold medal tally included Naitasiri with 9 Gold medals, 7 Gold medals to Rabi from Table Tennis and Nausori with 6 Gold medals and Labasa and Nasinu winning 5 Gold medals each.  

Athletes represented 24 districts over the past four days that included Korovou, Nausori, Suva, Lami, Nasinu, Vunidawa, Navua, Labasa, Savusavu, Seaqaqa, Taveuni, Saqani, Wainikoro, Lautoka, Yasawa, Ba, Tavua, Nadarivatu, Rakirakri, Nadi, Nadroga, Navosa, Levuka and Rotuma.

FASANOC Chief Executive Officer Lorraine Mar thanked the National Federations who hosted  Fiji Games competitions over this weekend.  She said that FASANOC also appreciated the commitment of the district athletes whose performances have made the 2019 Games a success, particularly those that had to play through the extremely wet Suva conditions over the last 4 days.

Several sports also used the Fiji Games as a final trial for aspiring athletes hoping to represent Fiji at the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa in July this year.

The Fiji Games is an opportunity for national selectors of the various sports to select athletes for forthcoming events such as the Pacific Games as well as other regional and international competitions.

There was intense competition amongst athletes vying for Team Fiji places in Archery, Boxing, Badminton, Basketball, Volleyball Beach and Indoor, Powerlifting, Sailing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, and Weightlifting as these National Federations used the 2019 Fiji Games to finalise their teams to the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.  

At the last Fiji Games in 2017, the district of Suva dominated winning a total of 30 Gold medals with their closest rival being Levuka which won 10 Gold medals.

The concept known as Fiji Games was mooted in the early 1980’s by former FASANOC President and Life Member The Late Captain Stan Brown and Bobby Tikaram.

FASANOC resurrected the idea in 1993 and organised the Inaugural Fiji Games in August 1994. Since then the Games have been held annually until 2008, for economical reasons and due to an already busy calendar  of sporting events in 2008, the idea of hosting the Fiji Games after every two years was proposed in the 2009 FASANOC Annual General Meeting.

The Fiji Games are funded by International Olympic Committee funding received through its regional arm, the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC).