How it all began – the Fiji Finals

TODAY until Saturday, Suva City will be the place to be. It will be chock-a-block. More than 3000 student athletes from more than 200 secondary Fijian schools, coupled with their officials, teachers and fans, will rave on the festivity of the 2022 Coca-Cola Games at the HFC Bank Stadium at Laucala Bay.

The Fiji Finals is back. It is an annual tournament for Fijian schools and is the biggest annually in the region.

It returns after COVID-19 halted it two years back.

It is hosted by the Fiji Secondary Schools Athletics Association. And fiercely contested. This is its 60th year since it started in 1962 at Veiuto in Suva.

One of the founding members of the then Fiji Schools Athletics Association, Graham Eden, arrived in Fiji from New Zealand as a physical education teacher.

Eden remembers co-ordinating the formation of early school athletics with fellow countryman Mike Blamires, a teacher who was involved in the Auckland Secondary Schools competitions in New Zealand back then.

“I came in January 1961, and we had a Suva Grammar School sports meet with other schools. We did not meet any other schools after that, but made arrangements for 1962 with schools in Suva,” Eden recalled.

“We really went to town with it. We loved the hard work and the fun. It was the beginning of the Fiji Finals. There was the Juicy Games and it has become a multi-school games. We saw that there were talents and I and Blamires said ‘Why can’t we develop the talents as we have our schools experience in New Zealand. Why don’t we do it with Fiji’ and that was how it all began. We put the effort into it and started it off. I started as the first secretary of the association and of the Fiji Amateur Athletics Association.”

He said the start was hard. “I used the physical education group from Suva Grammar and we used to mark in black oil the grass tracks, and would be used several years. In 1961 Suva Grammar had the first run. In 1962, I think it was five to six schools. It was basically hosted by Suva Grammar because we had the officials and also with the help of the Fiji Amateur Athletics Association which was headed then by Bill Ragg, who was influential in the acquiring of Buckhurst Park.”

Eden is a businessman in Suva and a retired sports commentator.