Verekauta for 2008 Olympics

New Zealand based Fiji athletics rep, Niko Verekauta is highly likely to join Makelesi Bulikiobo and Sisilia Nasiga from Fiji Judo at the Beijing Olympics this August.

Verekauta, who is a former student of Suva Grammar School, is one of the four scholarship athletes at the Oceania High Performance Training Centre, who have been nominated by their National Olympic Committee to represent their country at the Olympics.

He is provisionally selected by NOC under the "universality provision" where each nation is allowed to enter one male and one female athlete in to the athletics competition if no-one from that country has achieved an automatic qualifying time.

If no other male athlete from Fiji achieves the qualifying mark, Verekauta will compete in Beijing.

Verekauta will compete in a European Championship next month and is planning to run an Olympic Qualifying time of 45.95 seconds to secure a spot at his first Olympic Games.