A lot of investment has been done to prepare our Team Fiji men’s rugby sevens squad preparing for the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan.

The Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (FASANOC) chief executive officer Lorainne Mar said yesterday that almost $1 million has been allocated to the team’s preparations.

The Fijian men’s sevens team won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Overall when we were preparing our pre-COVID budget for all sports including rugby, it was about $3 million,” she said.

“The men’s sevens rugby team itself was about $1 million. In actual fact it was more since some money had already been spent due to these challenges, but however, we still have to pump in more resources.”

Mar said sevens rugby was the only sport so far that are able to utilise the funding they have.

The Team Fiji men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams have already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, which is from July 23 to August 8, next year.

“Immediately when the restrictions were eased in terms of gatherings, rugby set-up training centres around Fiji for the players. So we were able to assist them in that way,” she said.

“Now (coach) Gareth Baber has brought in his core players and we’ve been able to help them with that too.”

Mar has urged other sporting federations to sort out their qualifications and apply for the funds.

“That information in terms of qualifications has come through. So we need to know the budget so we can know how to allocate the funding,” she said.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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