Football humiliation
Nilesh Lal,Suva
As had been expressed before, Fijian football coach Frank Farina did not select the best team possible to represent Fiji at the Rio Olympics, which makes it even more difficult to accept the humiliating defeat to South Korea yesterday.
As we saw, Fiji’s defence lacked any credibility and had it not been for the stellar performance of goalkeeper Simione Tamanisau, the score would have been even worse. When the best U23 defenders are left out of selection, and players like Fiji’s best defender Taniela Waqa and his protege Manasa Levaci are not considered then such a dysfunctional defence was to be expected.
This was an opportunity of a lifetime for Fiji gifted to us by Vanuatu, and it’s a pity that our football politics prevented us from taking our best possible team to compete at the highest levels of football.
With the abysmal state of football development in our country, we will probably never get to witness Fijian football in Olympics in our lifetimes again.
Vehicle headlights
Satish Nakched,
Suva
It is a common experience while walking at night or even driving that we encounter the drivers of vehicles coming in the opposite direction not dipping their headlights.
This is the basic skills of a competence drivers and failure to adhere to such rules contributes to the attitude of that person.
Full beam headlights or main beam headlights, as they are also known, are positioned or angled so to provide the driver with as much illumination of the road ahead as possible and this becomes a hazard for the oncoming traffic and the pedestrians alike.
High beam headlights are angled higher than dipped for a better coverage.
As a result, full beams will therefore shine directly on the eyes of drivers of oncoming vehicles and pedestrians causing significant road blindness and dazzle, which is of course dangerous because they cannot see where they are going.
Following behind another vehicle on full beam can cause accidents also.
Full beam headlights should not be used where they may dazzle another motorist, cyclist or pedestrian and instead dipped headlights must be used.
Some of the vehicle owners have tampered with the headlight angle and the dip position of the headlight is slightly elevated which contributes to risky driving.
On our roads we encounter this problem and it is a high risk for the pedestrians at night. There is no consideration or any care displayed by some.
The vehicle owners and the drivers need to be more responsible on our roads to ensure safety for all users.
Balanced sevens mindset
Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa,
Delta, BC, Canada
As we continue to count sleep anticipating our first ever gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games, we should also consider to mentally train our minds to accept the unexpected which has been the trademark of the game of 7s rugby.
While we Fijians have high hopes and faith that our Vodafone Fiji 7s team have done the hard yards and we expect our first ever gold medal in the Rio Summer Olympic Games; let us not forget that anything can happen in 14 minutes.
All the participating 7s teams are aiming for the gold medal, have made their preparations as well and sending the best of the best they have.
We can only support and pray for our Vodafone Fiji 7s team to be in a positive balanced mindset, remember their game plan and enjoy themselves doing what they do best. Our Prime Minister is out there in Rio and we all hope and pray that coach Ben Ryan and the boys will indeed create history for Fiji by winning gold and putting us as the number one sevens rugby playing country in the world.
Even Sonny Bill Williams said that winning an Olympic gold medal in 7s rugby is more prestigious than New Zealand winning the Rugby World Cup.
For us diehard Fijian fans, we also need to have a balanced sevens mindset; let us claim by faith the victory and the gold medal and jump for joy bringing the roof down if our expectation becomes reality.
But at the same time, let us expect that a better team may just break our hearts as common in the game of 7s, so that no curses, heart attacks or mysterious flying objects invade the air when the unexpected happens.
This way, we would not be needing more experienced counsellors as suggested by Brother Gabe Simpson.
For the time being, it is go for Gold Fiji!
Deans semifinal
Amenatave Yaconisau,
Suva
As the sun settles today, we shall see which side God favours in the game between RKS and Marist in Lawaqa. Both have put in the hard yards.
The boys from Flagstaff have worked hard and laboured for victory in the week and they now have a fair idea of the right combination of the team that will do the job.
They won’t let the memories of last year’s defeat pull them down.
Barring any other factors let the best team win.
Go the Red, conquer!
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj