McCaig, Mudunasoko on course to Paris
PACIFIC Games gold medallists Hansel McCaig and Kelera Mudunasoko will be gunning for a place at the 2024 Paris Olympics when they will compete at the World Aquatics Championship in Doha, Qatar.
The pair departs the country today (Thursday) along with head coach Willie Elaisa who has been tracking and managing their progress since their gold medal performances at the Pacific Games last year.
The Aquatics Championship is the first qualifying event the duo will take part in as they chase a place among the top athletes at the pinnacle of sports, the Olympic Games.
“These two are both gold medallists at the recent Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands and they were nominated to represent us because we are only allowed two swimmers at the moment, and they are being managed and coached by Willie Elaisa from Suva,” Fiji Swimming president Ben Rova explained.
“This is one of the first qualifying events for these two swimmers, to try and make the qualifying times for the Olympics and one great thing is they are both currently on some sort of scholarship. Hansel has just been awarded recently the World Aquatics Scholarship to help him with his preparation for the next year and Kelera has been offered to take up an IOC scholarship which will take her yup until the end of the Paris Olympic. We are very fortunate that these two swimmers are being assisted with funds.”
He added: “Apart from attending this Doha Championship, the other one which is also an Olympic Qualifier will be the Oceania Championships in April which is mandatory for them to attend. Hopefully, we will be able to send them also to the Australia and New Zealand Championships so that they can meet qualifying times.”
However, the federation is not limiting other Olympic hopefuls from trying out in other qualifying competitions.
“Now while these two swimmers have been offered these scholarships, we also have other swimmers who are also capable of being selected to the Olympics and there will be events where they can go and compete in and hopefully where we can provide some assistance to that, we will do that in the coming month,” Rova said.
Apart from this, Fiji Swimming started its domestic competition with a Long Course Grand Prix last weekend with the next competition scheduled for March at the Damodar City Aquatic Centre in Laucala Bay, Suva.