[File Photo]

Next year’s Fiji Finals could see the introduction of semifinals for the first time in the games’ history for certain events.

This after the Fiji Secondary Schools Athletics Association passed the motion at its Annual General Meeting in Suva last night.

FSSAA Secretary Biu Colati says they’ll have semifinals for events that have seven heats or more from next year.

Today’s boys sub-junior grade 100 meters have nine heats but it was decided at the AGM that only the best eight athletes will get to run in the final this afternoon.

Colati says for the first time in their history they’ll have nine heats for an event.

“We talked this over with the managers because it’s happening for the first time, that’s something scary and we anticipate that this will start happening, we discussed this with the managers and the managers have all agreed that only the fastest eight athletes will go through for the last time this year.”

About 2800 athletes from 160 schools around the country will be featuring at this year’s Fiji Finals.

An extra five schools have joined this year compared to last year.

32 gold medals are up for grabs today with 17 for the girls and 15 in the boys division.

16 field and 16 tracks gold are on offer on day one and today’s highlights will be the 1500 and 100 meters finals.

Colati also revealed that for some maritime schools, all their athletes met the qualifying standards and will feature at the Games.

He says the numbers of the maritime athletes are less but the quality is high.

The FSSAA secretary adds that over 50 athletes that failed to make the cut from their zones have managed to qualify for the divisional games that were recently held in the west and Suva.

You can start watching our LIVE and EXCLUSIVE Fiji Finals coverage from 8:15am on FBC TV.

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