US study, training for Donna
DONNA Cavuilati, one of Fiji’s brightest stars on the national athletics scene, flew out of the country for further studies in the US.
This was published in an article which appeared in The Fiji Times on June 3, 1989.
Donna, who was 18 at the time, had been given a scholarship to undertake a year-long course at the Denver Business College in Colorado.
The scholarship was made possible through Joe Lee, the chairman of the board of directors of the college, who on his visits to Fiji was impressed by Donna’s form on the athletics track and began to take an interest in her running career.
He approached Donna’s father, Pio, and offered to sponsor the talented teenager for a scholarship that would enable her to study and at the same time pursue her athletics career.
Donna indicated a preference for a career in the travel or tourism industry so Mr Lee advised her to take up the Travel Secretary Program at the college.
Pio Cavuilati, a former Mr Fiji in the early 1960s and a Fiji representative in boxing in the early 1970s, said the kind gesture by Mr Lee would boost the morale of young sportsmen and sportswomen who in their budding years could have the same opportunity as Donna to go for a career as well as continue to develop themselves in the sport they loved.
“The scholarship given to Donna will give her the chance to experience training and competition on the international scene,” he said.
Donna’s priority in the US was to study but after she had settled in, she joined a top athletics club in Colorado where a suitable coach helped in her training.
Donna said she was very excited about the opportunity given to her to study in America and expressed her hopes for the coming 12 months.
“I want to learn all I can and succeed in my studies,” she said.
“As for my sporting career, I want to train and develop myself so that I can return to Fiji and put it to good use.”
She attributed her success on the track to her family and their continuous support.
Donna comes from a family of five sisters and one brother.
She last represented Fiji at the 1987 South Pacific Games in New Caledonia and at the time held three national records.
She held the 800m national record, the 1500m record and the 3000m record.
Donna won her first major race when she was an eight-year-old in the Fiji Fun Run 10km race in 1979 at Pacific Harbour.
Since then, Donna had been a popular and outstanding athlete, setting a number of records as a student of St Joseph’s Secondary School in just about every year.
Fiji Athletics official Atma Maharaj said the scholarship given to Donna to pursue a career as well as develop her athletics in the US was a double boost for her personally and for the sport as a whole.
“I hope that this will be the beginning of the introduction of the type of scholarship granted by the Denver Business College for potential young sports people,” he said.