Marist athletes face challenges in juggling schoolwork and training

Coming into the Coca-Cola Suva Zone 2 competition, the Marist Brothers High School athletes and coaches know it’s not going to be easy trying to achieve their goal of creating something special as athletes try to balance school work and training.

Former Fiji long jumper and current Marist long jump coach Eugene Vollmer says one of the biggest challenges is juggling schoolwork and coming to training camp because there was such little time for them to prepare for the zone, and also the changing of dates because of the draw matches, so they had to adjust all the inter-house dates and the zone dates.

He says that became an issue with trying to get the athletes fit, and so they had to juggle that with the schoolwork and ensure that their schoolwork was up to par.

He adds despite that, the athletes were getting the quality training and workouts that were needed.

When asked how the athletes are responding to the setbacks, Vollmer says a lot of them have responded very well because most of them have done it year in and year out, and it is nothing new to them.

He says they just get into their routine and stick to it, work on the important things, and leave it to their strengths.

He adds they focus mainly on their weaknesses as well with the little time that they have.

Vollmer says as a coach, they would like to see some good performances and some good results from the athletes, but ultimately, they have to understand that they are developing athletes, so expectations from their end are that the athletes enjoy themselves and that they enjoy the sport of athletics.

He adds winning medals and winning the event is an added bonus.

Vollmer says he thinks they have what it takes to create something special, but right now, there is a lot of competition coming from the outer field, especially from the high-level zone and the western zones.

Meanwhile, Marist leads the the boys’ division with 4 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze, Suva Grammar is in second place with 2 gold, and Jai Narayan College is third with 1 gold.

In the girls’ division, Suva Grammar leads with 3 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze, Nuku Secondary School is in second place with 2 gold and 2 silver, while Saint Joseph’s Secondary School is third with 1 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.

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