Remaining national Athletes for Athletics (Jumps, Middle Distance, Sprints and Throws), Para athletes and Swimmers to undergo training and competitions in Australia have left the country yesterday.
The group that travelled out yesterday are the remaining of the 63 athletes travelling for the training camp at Gold Coast’s ‘Sports Super Centre’ for one week and to attend competitions.
Already travelling earlier to Australia were the nation’s ‘swimming’ and ‘triathlon’ athletes.
Athletics will be taking part at the Queensland State Championships which is on March 9 to 12 while the nation’s ‘Swimmers’ will be competing next week at the Gold Coast Championships from March 10 to 12.
The nation’s ‘Triathlon’ athletes understood to be competing today in Australia will be heading down to the Gold Coast to join the national swimmers there. On March 8, athletics athletes will be heading to Brisbane for the Queensland State Championships, leaving the national swimmers and triathlon at the Gold Coast.
Performance Manager for Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport (SINIS), Jackie Travertz in update said this is a combined training camp for all three sports of ‘Athletics’, ‘Triathlon’ and ‘Swimming’, which is a total of 63 people.
“We have 7 coaches and three support Staff which is SINIS Physio and two Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coaches. That gives the total of 63 people who are out there,” said Travertz.
According to Travertz, this is good for the athletes to attend the training camp and competitions as it will gives their Coaches a clear picture to where the athletes are at and what they need to improve on in the next 6 to 7 months before the Pacific Games.
“So having competitions earlier gives us and the National Federation more time to see the areas for improvement and work on them leading into the Pacific Games. There are a lot of challenges that we encountered on the preparations for this trip that they are going to, but we are glad that everyone was able to travel,” said Travertz.
“Most of these athletes are new but the main ‘rewarding’ part of this trip is for them to bring back their experience and see areas that they need to work on and pick up in the next 6 or 7 months.
"Also assisting the Coaches on ground in Australia we have some very high qualified Coaches across the 3 sports doing some skills session with the athletes and Coaches.
“As the Performance Manager for these three sports under Portfolio Three at SINIS, I am very proud of all the efforts the athletes have put since last year to earn a spot to travel. So I want to wish them the best and looking forward for them to bring back their experience for the rest of the athletes in the country.”
Solomon Islands athletes will be returning on March 14.
Source: SINIS