15/01/2021
Oceania
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BF organize successful secondary club competition in Suva

SUVA (Fiji) - Basketball struggled with the ongoing pandemic crisis and in 2020, Fiji was unable to stage one of its biggest basketball tournaments, the annual secondary school basketball championship.

Led by Basketball Fiji Chief Executive Officer, Laisiasa Puamau, the Federation organized a secondary club championship to mitigate the lost opportunity with the school competition.

"We were not able to organize any school competition because of the COVID-19 pandemic and our secondary school competition is usually the biggest tournament in our annual calendar," explained Puamau. "So we thought of a school club event during the holiday break and we made sure that teams and players came from their respective schools."

The secondary school championships of Fiji included a U15, U17, and U19 divisions for boys and girls and the club championship featured the same divisions for its competition format.

"We were very pleased with the turnout with over 27 teams and more than 320 players registering for the competition which includes our U14 National Academy team competing in the U15 division," shared Puamau.

"It was a successful event for everyone involved to the coaches, organizers, players, and even the spectators," he added.

Puamau highlighted the reception of the games by the spectators which filled up the Yat Sen School Gym and the Vodafone Arena for the four-day event.

"We were quite impressed with the U15 boys and U15 girl’s competition because of the festival atmosphere of the tournament. It was great to see whole families supporting the players which gave a really good ambiance to the competition," he said.

"BF is keen on organizing similar club championships in the future. The break I believe also gave more time or opportunity for parents or supporters to watch the games.  However as always, venues is the challenge we have to address," he added.

The competition's inspiration stemmed from the desire to provide an activity for the youth during the holiday break according to the Puamau.

"We wanted to engage our youth with sports during the holiday season and have them do something that they love. There might be fewer teams than our usual secondary tournament. But I believe these club competitions are a good complement to that tournament and we are hoping this is a start of something great in our grassroots programs," he ended.

FIBA