Fiji will be out to defend the Super Sprint men and women’s titles at the Pacific Island Triathlon Championship at the Wailoaloa Beach in Nadi today.

Fiji Triathlon president Dave Dickson confirmed 20 athletes from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji will be participating.

Dickson said the objective is to promote sport to young people.

Senior Super Sprint champion Manoa Petero said his focus is to revive triathlon for the people of Fiji and inspire young athletes.

“Having this regional game can create awareness for the athletes in Fiji to build our junior athletes so they can represent their countries during the Oceania Games,”Petero said.

“As a senior athlete I want to inspire young athletes to follow my footsteps and go through what I have been doing in the five years of competition.”

Team PNG has brought junior and senior teams.

Coach and senior athlete for PNG, Rachel Sapery James said their team has made an effort to have more junior development athletes involved and most of the junior and senior athletes are female.

“It’s fantastic to see a lot of junior athletes, specially female athletes participating, which is quite a big improvement from last year,” James said.

Meanwhile the teams from Fiji and Papua New Guinea took part in a clean sweep campaign in collaboration with the Nadi Town Council at Wailoaloa Beach.

Edited by Osea Bola

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