Athletics challenges | Miller banks on old hands for leadership

I will be depending on senior and experienced athletes to lead this side to the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands in November, says Athletics Fiji head coach Albert Miller.

Miller said Team Athletics Fiji to the games this year would field a young side, many of whom had never represented the country at any international meet.

“We know that we have a very young side, but they were the only ones we could choose from,” he said.

“This does not mean that they will not work hard and perform, they are excited for the games, and we are looking forward to seeing them compete.

“However, we have a handful of senior and more experienced athletes in the squad who we will be depending on to lead the team into the games.”

While speaking about their goals for the games, Miller said they needed to be realistic about what they were hoping to achieve.

“Before, when we had more experienced athletes, we could be more specific about our goal.

“But since we have a very young side, our goal is to go out there and do our best.

“We also want to have a young side so we can be able to build and develop our athletes for future international meets.”

Meanwhile, he added there were a few medal prospects who they were expecting for the games.

“We have a few medal prospects from our senior athletes.

“This includes Yeshil Karan, our long-distance runner, who has been representing Fiji in the past.

“We are also expecting a few medals from the field events for the men’s namely the triple-jump and javelin events.”