Taina Basiyalo 
Fiji Secondary Schools Athletics Association secretary Biu Colati says this year’s Maritime Zone recorded an increase in the number of participating schools, although there was a drop in the overall number of athletes compared to previous years.
A total of seven schools took part in the zone meet, with Rotuma High School and a team from Kadavu joining the competition for the first time, highlighting growing participation from outer island schools.
Despite fewer athletes competing, Colati says the quality of competition was notably high, with several standout performances across both track and field events.
“This year is different from the quality of athletes that we have been getting, Rotuma brought in five and they all qualified. On the tracks today we saw some of the schools in Suva who had come to provide competition were beaten by the students coming in from the islands and that goes to show, a lot of differences happening here within the zone and I’m sure it’s going to carry on like this for quite some time.”
He adds that despite the competition starting and finishing an hour later than scheduled, they were happy with the overall organization and understood that the delay was due to teams travelling from the outer islands.
The Maritime Zone schools are expected to provide strong competition at this year’s Fiji Finals, after impressive times, distances and heights were recorded today.
The Fiji Finals starts this Thursday to Saturday at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.
You can watch the LIVE coverage on FBC TV.
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