Laying a skilled foundation.
The new SDO working with Secondary Schools (i.e. High Schools, Colleges and Junior Secondary Schools) on Tarawa is international athlete Nooa Takooa. He has made a great start to his job, showing commitment and organisation. His emphasis so far has been on improving basic running skills by using a variety of drills and equipment. The response from the students has been enthusiastic and the majority have approached his sessions with a positive attitude, wanting to learn and improve. (Please view his two illustrated reports attached.)
He has also started to work on their Shot Putt technique. It is hoped that the school staff feel able to build on his sessions, using the IAAF text-book "Run ! Jump ! Throw !", a copy of which each school was given a year ago when visited by former KAA Secretary David Little (from UK).
The odd problem.
In spite of his good planning, forward appointments and regular attendance, Nooa has found the occasional problems. The first is that some schools are not prioritising his visits and so they cancel his sessions due to various clashes. The other is that he sometimes has different athletes for consecutive sessions, which means that he has to repeat activities rather than make steady progress with one group of athletes at that school.
However his efforts are being well-received by the schools' managements and only time will tell how much he has managed to improve techniques, attitudes to training, and ultimately performances. (Image of Nooa in Kiribati uniform at a London Olympics 2012 function.)
News of the other SDOs.
Rabangaki Nawai has been working steadily and effectively in the 12 Primary Schools on Tarawa. Again, time will tell how much effect he has had.
Nei Kairao Tune is pregnant and thus temporarily not able to continue with her task of encouraging more women to be active in Athletics events.
Last Modified on 07/04/2017 10:16