Hossein: Let’s Get To Work
Weightlifting Fiji’s national head coach, Hossein Tavakoli returned to Iran yesterday, to organise for his family to move over.
WF general secretary Ritesh Ratiram said this in accordance with overall plans of WF for the implementation of a high-performance coaching structure at the WF National Fitness Centre in Suva.
He said Hossein was scheduled to travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan in July with the national team for the 2018 IWF Junior World Championships. After the competition in Tashkent, Hossein was scheduled to travel to Iran to bring his family to Fiji.
However, WF has decided not to enter the 2018 IWF Junior World Championships because there are no eligible athletes achieving performances that would enable them to attend this elite age-group competition.
“In order to minimise the downtime as Weightlifting Fiji works through this stalemate, it was agreed that Hossein can now travel across to bring his family.
“The coach is eager to work with our elite athletes but this standoff is costing the coach valuable work time. So, he’s heading back to Iran to bring his family to Fiji now instead of a later date. This gives us some time to tidy up our own internal affairs, as this standoff was totally unexpected,” Ratiram said.
Hossein has been working closely with local coaches Della and Henry Elder.
“They are enjoying what they’re learning and experiencing with him. Hossein has made some great improvements to the techniques and performances of the Suva-based athletes training at the National Fitness Centre.” Hossein said that while he has been able to help and make improvements with a few athletes in Suva, he wants to work with more senior athletes.
“I’m a good coach and I want produce results for Fiji. But this way will take too much time. Senior lifters will be better. I want to work, weightlifting is my passion and I work hard. Three weeks without resolution and with me waiting is not good.”
On another note, Ratiram says, the new ranking-based qualification system for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is expected to be announced in early July.
“Only Weightlifting Fiji athletes who make a full commitment to the 18 months qualification programme will have any chance of qualifying for Tokyo, as they have to start scoring ranking points from the very first qualification event on November 1, 2018. This will mean that the athletes have to be in full-training by July to be considered for the Tokyo Olympics squad,” he added.