Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (FASANOC) president Joseph Rodan (Senior) says Team Fiji needs more funding.

This is to prepare for the 2017 Mini Pacific Games in Vanuatu and the 2019 Pacific Games in Tonga.

“At the end of the day, if you want your team to perform then finance is needed,” Rodan said.

“We came back satisfied with what we achieved by winning 33 gold medals and moving from sixth to fourth spot in the medal tally.

“We were very ambitious and that is what all is about to approach a game. Realistically, we had a budget about $2.5 million to prepare our teams compared to 44million (Kina) (FJ$32m) and all their athletes were training overseas.

“We won seven gold medals on the tracks with 17 school athletes. We are in a build-up phase and strategic planning in the next four years would see us as the team to reckon in Tonga.”

Rodan said minor sports like swimming, table tennis, karate, and boxing should be assisted because they offered about 20 medals.

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