Fiji reaping rewards from 10-year plan

FIJI’s competitiveness at the Oceania Swimming Championships in Port Moresby boils down a decade of strategic planning, says Oceania Swimming Association president Dennis Miller.
Miller, who was part of Fiji’s build-up, referred to that as the foundation of their success at the championships.
Team Fiji have a 22-member team and have been winning medals in the Oceania class ahead of other Pacific island nations.
On day one (Tuesday), Fiji’s Taichi Vakasama won silver in the men’s 200m breaststroke and Cheyanne Rova won bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke.
On day two (Wednesday) Fiji added to their medal tally with another silver (Vakasama) and (Epeli Rabua) bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Fiji also snatched bronze in the mixed 4x50m relay clocking a time of 1.54.69 behind Australia (silver) 1.49.92 and New Zealand (gold) 1.49.78.
“Fiji is winning medals in the main competition and not in the island medal category, so it’s very satisfying for us,” Miller said.
“For Fiji, it’s been a long 10-year programme basically since the Pacific Games in 2007 where we only had three or four swimmers,” Miller said.
“I was part of Fijian Swimming so we sat down and refocused; we did strategic planning to bring us to where we are now.
“Now we have a very enthusiastic group on the board, a good club competition and schools competition and the swimmers utilise all the resources they have with the government of Fiji as a big supporter.”
With Fiji’s leading success in comparison with the competing Pacific island countries at the championship, Miller was confident that Fiji would be competitive at next year’s Pacific Games.