The onus is now on sporting bodies to step-up and perform after the Ministry of Youth and Sports was allocated $23.1 million in the 2017/18 National Budget.

These were the sentiments of Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) regional media development specialist Matai Akauola.

The $23.1 million is a $6.7 million increase from the $16.4 million given last year in the 2016/2017 National Budget.

Akauola said the budget given should translate into performance of our sporting bodies and athletes.

He also mentioned that a lot of focus needs to go into the women after the Telecom Fijiana team qualified for the Rugby World Cup Sevens next year.

“I think they got their strategies in place,”Akauola said.

“They have to be prudent in the way they utilise funds allocated to the Fijian National Sports Commission,” Akauola said.

“The budget has been given out but they have to be accountable on how they use it. We could expect more from sports if they account for every cent that is spent, hopefully it could translate into the performance.

“We have the Asian Indoor Games in September, Pacific Mini Games in December, the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby World Cup Sevens next year.

“Even the Fijiana are performing well, they are a forgotten bunch and hopefully we could assist our women more.

“We talk about women’s activities but when it comes to rugby and the Fijiana I hope we could concentrate more on them.

“They have shown what they could do with the minimum support they have had, they have proved themselves and imagine if we assisted them more into development.”

Akauola said the increase in the allocation is a “promotion for everything that has been in sports” and more should be poured in to help smaller sports excel.

“I think it is a really good budget, I believe it is a promotion for everything that has been done in sports, not only in the ministry but it also goes into sports tourism.

“One thing about sports is that it brings people together and I think we should pour more into sports after the gold medal win at the 2016 Rio Olympics and how we are preparing for other major sporting events.

“Some sports are hitting the world mark like sevens rugby in both the male and female and hopefully Vodafone Flying Fijians can do well against Tonga and Samoa.

“Then you have all those other sporting bodies who want to qualify for the Commonwealth Games next year and I hope that we could help more of the smaller sports and help them excel.”

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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