This year’s Coca-Cola Games will probably go down as one of the most poorly planned and administered ever.
These Games, which had at its core and essence the welfare and development of young athletes from all over the country, have become a debacle due to the incompetent and no care attitude of the Games administrators and officials.
Instead of providing an environment that would bring out the best in every athlete, these Games have been littered with long waiting times before the start of events that have affected the performance of both track and field athletes alike.
You cannot have athletes waiting for up to one and a half hours in the sun or in marshaling areas, and expect them to be performing at their very best.
Coupled with poor officiating, which saw slow recalls, a li tarry of false starts, the use of uncalibrated optical measuring instruments, and poor distance spotting, it would not come as a surprise if this year’s Games broke the hearts of many of these young athletes and have them questioning the entire notion of fairness that has always been associated with athletics and the Fiji Finals.
Coca-Cola and the Fiji Secondary Schools Athletics Association, in expecting high standards from these young athletes, must also ensure their standards of administration and officiating converges with the sacrifices of these young athletes, their parents and guardians, teachers and coaches, so that athletics, as a sport in our country, is moving forward, always.
Evidence of poor administration planning was completely exposed in various aspects of the 2024 Coca-Cola Games, as one letter writer points out. Photo: Leon Lord
Irrespective of how they place in the overall boys and girls title races, all schools represented in these Games should call for an independent review into how administrators and officials are selected.
And the usual excuses that the Games rely on the goodwill of volunteers must never be accepted for if one is a volunteer, one is still expected to give one’s best and nothing less because these Games has always been about nurturing dreams and bringing out the best in every athlete under fair and professional guidelines.
For goodness sake, we are in 2024, and not 1874.
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