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Even with barefoot Alidye Fo’oburi was impressive on the track this year – and now described by his coach as one of the fastest sprinters in the country.
Fo’oburi, a form 6 student at Selwyn College, is one of the exciting sprinters to appear this year— but his coach Chris Walasi believes with a running spike, Fo’oburi would further improve on his timing.
Thanks to a facebook appeal, Fo’oburi today received a new pair of sprint boots from the Selwyn Old Scholars Association (SOSA).
The boot was delivered to Walasi and Fo’oburi at the school.
Walasi, a veteran athlete, and now coaching athletics at Selwyn College says Fo’oburi is surely one of the fastest sprinters right now in the country.
He said besides him, there are other two athletes from Selwyn College who are equally good as Fo’oburi and have recently won trials which also included national sprinter Paul Ma’unikeni.
He said the students were remarkable and they have now overtaken their former schoolmate Ma’unikeni, who is the country’s leading senior sprinter.
“I was very excited to see the boys progress as we have been training hard in the past months,” said Walasi.
“I had coached Paul as a student here and I am excited to see young sprinters are following his footstep at this school.
“These boys are very good and discipline. My intension is to train them in preparation for the Pacific Games. I think if our top sport administrators want to prepare for the Pacific Games they should go out to the schools and recruit promising athletes, in any field, not just athletes.
“I am doing my part to identify top athletes from my school and bring them to championships, if they do well then they can be recruited to train and represent our country,” he added.
Walasi believes his school has potential athletes who can be recruited to prepare for the pacific games.
Walasi said currently there are three sprinters which he believes with proper guidance they can make an impact at the Pacific Games. But besides them there are also many promising athletes who are not far from the trio.
Walasi said with the donation of the running spikes, Fo’oburi, who comes from Loina Village, North Malaita, would surely improve on his time.
With barefoot and running on grass track Fo’oburi records 11.18.
The 100 meter record time in the country was held by the late Joseph Onika who clocked 10.75 whilst Walasi himself 10.78.
Walasi said with proper running shoes and tough competitions, the boys can easily reduce their times to within the 10s’.
He thank SOSA for the support to his athletes as they prepare for the national championships this weekend.
The national athletics championships will be held at Selwyn College on Friday and Vaturanga, next to Selwyn on Saturday.
News@SBMOnline2020
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