CONSISTENCY REWARDED !
One of our three new internationals, Raobu Tarawa, competed as a guest last night in the first of the three OAA Grand Prix meetings to be held in Saipan. In the MShot, he started nervously with 10+m. but his last four trials were over 12m. with a tantalising PB of 12.94m. His target was a PB, but the bonus target is to become only the second I-Kiribati over 13m. Maybe next week in the Championships ? And to have achieved six legal throws in your first competition overseas must be another bonus !
Also the three main sprinters had an outing/leg-stretch in the last track event, the M100m. They survived a false start and clocked 11.55, 11.82, and 11.91. Rabangaki, Tanroo and Tearoba all benefited from this by getting the long journey out of their legs. Ten hours from Nadi to Seoul, followed by a four hour leg to Saipan and a 2.30 am arrival alll needed a recovery ! Fifteen hours later they were competing !
ANOTHER SMALL DRAMA !
As we have experienced many times, the comfortable start of our travels became complicated on Friday morning at Nadi airport when we (in company with Solomons and Samoa} found ourselves NOT ON THE SYSTEM ! We had the e-tickets but no visas for Saipan, having been assured that we would receive them on arrival. Luckily, having been through similar experiences before, we did not panic ! The fact that our last bags were checked in only 15 minutes before scheduled take-off has become almost the norm for us !
Anyway, now we are here, sleeping OK (with the air con OFF), training OK, and starting with relative success. Self-catering is a challenge with a party of twelve and one kitchen, but we are coping !
Apologies to our readers but we will put some photos on the stories when we return home on July 01.
COACHING WORKSHOPS.
Today (Sunday) we have benefited from attending Coaching Workshops on Conditioning and Resistance Training given by Peter Lawler. Fortunately he has geared his advice to both those with easy access to weights, etc. plus those from the more remote islands who may have to use body-weight and items from the beach or the bush.
As ever in these situations, we are grateful to OAA for giving our coaches and athletes the opportunity.
and THANKS to adidas too ! UP-DATE !
Yesterday (Sunday) all the competing Oceania countries received allocations of customised OAA promotional items from adidas. We are grateful to that sponsoring company for shoes, socks, shorts, T-shirts, rain-jackets, and training bags. We will happily continue to advertise adidas products !!
Last Modified on 23/06/2008 10:28