Around 200 Fijian coaches were requested to assist in the development of rugby sevens in China which was an im­possible demand to meet, revealed Fiji National Sports Commission chairman Peter Mazey.

Speaking during the Fiji Sports Media Symposium in Suva yes­terday, Mazey also highlighted in detail how the grants are being uti­lised within the national sporting federations that benefits the devel­opment of sports in the country.

“On a recent trip to China we were told that China is developing sev­ens rugby on a big way and the Ali­baba company had approximately put in $US4million (FJ$8m) into the sport,” he said.

“And they asked us if Fiji could supply about 200 coaches which was impossible for us as we had only three coaches who were ac­credited with level 3 qualifications.

“Everybody thinks the sports commission is all about giving away money and honestly speaking most journalists only turn-up for interviews at that time. Yes, we are responsible for funding our sport­ing bodies and the development of the sport.

“We do give grants for world rank­ing events as well as the hosting of international competitions in our country and currently we have the International Weightlifting Federa­tion’s junior championship on June 1-8 at the Vodafone Arena.”

Mazey said Fiji is becoming a des­tination for international sporting events and for that they give out scholarships for athletes to do short term training overseas.

“Another grant that we have in place is for international coaching grant from which we have eight lo­cal coaches to be part of it.

“Another function we have is to develop sports programmes in the rural based communities– this is where we have a seven- day outreach programme in villages around the country.

“And through this coaching pro­grammes we have coaches being part of 7s tournaments hosted around the country where they are paid $50 a day and it’s all part of the development of the sport.

“Our development and findings are done in partnership with the NSOs in the country and partner­ship with FASANOC and ONOC. So the OSEP programme looks at av­enues to train sports officials such as coaches.”

Peter Mazey during the Fiji Sports Media Association Symposium at the Holiday Inn in Suva.
Photo: Grace Narayan

Mazey also confirmed that he would be working towards allo­cating funds to train local sports journalists as well to boost their knowledge on all aspects of sports reporting.

“I think it’s time we will need to set aside some money to bring experts from overseas to train these young sports journalists,” he added.

“The reason being we wanting to invest on the media personals be­cause there are very important to us in disseminating information to the general public.

And under this short term train­ing grants we allocate funds on the National Sports Organisations staff development programmes as well.

“We also have special grants for people with disability and ensuring they can also participate in inter­national events.

“This is also another area that me­dia should highlight about.”

Mazey said there were untold sto­ries in the previous Pacific Games, Rio Olympic Games as well as the Commonwealth Games.

“Journalists need to look for those extra stories and not those usual stories on the winning teams or athletes and of course the results are the main components of the story,” he added.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

Feedback: grace.narayan@fijisun.com.fj