From Fiji Times (30 April 2026)

'For my brother'

VENASIO Savea came to the 2023 Fiji Finals with two things on his mind: winning gold, and honouring the memory of his brother Daniel, who died in a swimming accident after winning gold at the previous games.

Back home in Rotuma, he trained with sandbags and a grog pounder. Those were his weights, what was available in the absence of proper training equipment and facilities at Rotuma High School. He trained alongside his father, who woke him at 4am. In the afternoons, they were back at it again.

At the 2022 Fiji Finals, Daniel had been Rotuma High School's lone gold medallist, winning the intermediate discus and shot put. Venasio was supposed to have accompanied him but had not made the journey. Then tragedy struck when Daniel died in a swimming accident after the games.

In 2023, Venasio was in Suva for the first time, competing in the discus throw and shot put, the same events in which his brother had won gold. Rotuma sent only three athletes to the 2023 Games. His purpose for being there was clear.

"I was close to my brother and my aim is to win gold at the games for him," he told The Fiji Times.

The week before the games, he had trained with the field athletes of Marist Brothers High School, an act of generosity from a rival school that he acknowledged specifically in his interview. For a full week, the young Rotuman prepared on the same track where he would compete, learning from athletes whose school he would line up against when the gun fired.

His father, Joseph, had made the crossing from Rotuma with him.

"Training without him was hard. Remembering that he also went through the same training routine, I sometimes would cry."

Venasio arrived at the HFC Bank Stadium as the eldest of three siblings, carrying the weight of a family that had already given everything to these games once before and lost more than a gold medal when it was over. His story is one of many personal stories of grief and sacrifice woven into the fabric of the Fiji Finals.

            Daniel Savea