Farrell Wants To Be First For Diving
Dual citizen Maori Farrell has given up rugby to concentrate on diving in the hope to represent Fiji at the next Olympics.
Friday 02 September 2022 | 03:00
Dual citizen Maori Farrell has given up rugby to concentrate on diving in the hope to represent Fiji at the next Olympics.
The 13-year-old Canadian born Fijian is now living in Mexico to be trained by international renowned diving coach Ivan Bautista.
Originally from Wainunu, Bua he was accompanied by his father Daniel last month to apply for his Fiji citizenship. He now holds both a Canadian and Fijian passport.
“Diving is not a sport for everybody, you have to be brave, if you want to do it and then go for it,” Farrell said.
“It can be challenging at times, you could be afraid of certain dives."
"It could take you months to master a dive,” he said.
“It’s all about repetition; we do 120 dives per day."
Farrell is yet to qualify for the Olympics for the sport dominated by China in the last Olympics.
He spends seven hours a day for six days a week training while he does his academic classes (schooling) online.
“It’s like a job,” he added.
While training in Mexico, Farrell has had his share fair of challenges along the way.
“The challenges include moving to a different country, not knowing the language and getting bullied of course because I’m a foreigner,” he said.
He is determined to be the first Fijian diver at the 2024 Olympics.
He started diving when he was 8 after observing a group of divers at a pool in Canada.
“I was at a public swimming pool, I did not know how to swim so I looking at the divers, diving off the platform and springboard and I thought that was really cool,’ he said.
“I told my dad that I could do that, he was skeptical at first because he wanted me to play rugby."
“He told me that I need to learn how to swim first."
“I love rugby. But something about diving just clicked."
“I used to juggle both, I used to go for train for diving in the afternoon and then play rugby at night but it got to a point that I had to pick one so I picked diving."
Farrell returns to Canada with his father Daniel this weekend.
Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj
