Banuve Tabakaucoro

Pacific sprint king Banuve Tabakaucoro confirms retirement

The announcement means the 2023 Pacific Games will have a new winner in the men's 100m and 200m.

In an exclusive interview with Fiji One on Monday, Tabakaucoro said the "decision was definitely a hard one" but one that he had been contemplating for over a year since competing at the Pacific Mini Games in the Northern Marianas last June, where he won gold in the 100m.

The 30-year-old, who holds the Pacific record in the 100 and 200 metres events, represented Fiji at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Team Fiji’s star Banuve Tabakaucoro books spot in 100m semifinals

Tabakaucoro clocked the fastest time of 10.93 seconds in the heats.

His teammates, Tony Lemeki and Lasarusa Senibale have also qualified in the semifinals of the same event.

Lemeki recorded 11.31 seconds while Senibale finished with a time of 11.21 seconds last night.

The three athletes will run in the semifinals which will be held today at 6:30pm (Fiji Time).

In the women’s 100m, Braelynn Yee finished in 6th place in the final running a time of 13.09s.

Fiji is currently ranked 12th in the overall medal tally with 7 silver and 8 bronze medals.

Fiji’s Tabakaucoro ends Tokyo 2020 campaign with 7th place finish in the heats

     Tabakaucoro ran a slower time of 10.70 seconds compared to his preliminary round heat time ran earlier.

The Pacific’s fastest man finished equal third in the prelim round clocking a season’s best time of 10.59 seconds.

It was not quite a bad achievement for Tabakaucoro considering he didn’t have enough international competitions in the last few months due to the pandemic compared to other athletes in his heat.

Tabakaucoro went to the Games with a season’s best of 11.20 seconds.

Fiji’s Tabakaucoro qualifies to round 1 of 100 metres sprint at the Tokyo Olympics

    Tabakaucoro clocked a time of 10.59 seconds alongside United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed Alhammadi who also clocked the same time.

They both finished behind Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald who came in second with a time of 10.30 seconds.

Oman’s Barakat Al harthi finished in first with time of 10.27 seconds.

Fiji’s Sprint King, Banuve Tabakaucoro qualifies for Tokyo Olympics

FASANOC has confirmed his name in the Team Fiji list.

Tabakaucoro is currently training in Australia preparing for the Games.

The 29-year-old will race against the best in the world as he takes up the universality spot for athletics.

Meanwhile, Fiji Swimming has submitted the names of Cheyenne Rova and Taichi Vakasama.

Rova and Vakasama are going to the Olympics through the universality spot.

Table Tennis will also be represented at the Games by Sally Yee.

Pacific sprint king keen to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics

This was revealed by Team Fiji Chef De Mission Patrick Bower.

Fijivillage reported Bower saying that according to reports from Athletics Fiji, Tabakaucoro is happy to participate and is making every effort to qualify as the top athlete from Fiji.

Tabakaucoro decided not to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics because he did not rightfully qualify.

FASANOC CEO Lorraine Mar says they have only one universality (wildcard) spot in athletics and Tabakaucoro will have to overcome tough competition from Eugene Vollmer to get that spot in case he does not qualify on merit.

Pacific sprint King and Queen retain titles

Fiji's Tabakaucoro set a new Pacific Games record of 10.31 seconds to hold off the challenge from hometown duo Jeremy Dodson and Kelvin Masoe to win his third straight gold medal in the event.

"It feels good to come out here and defend my title. It's been a tough few weeks, especially trying to perform to the expectations of the crowd back home."

"This is a title that's been in Fiji since even before I was born so I'm just glad to come out here and defend it once again," he said.

Fit and ready: Pacific Sprint King Tabakaucoro

Tabakaucoro has to run in nine events over five days and this includes the heats of the 100m, the 200m and the 4x100m.

He never has had to run these many races over a continuous five day period but the man who all will be watching in PNG is ready.

“This is the first time I will be competing over five days, maximum I have done is three days. With extra days, I really have to be running smart in all my races," he said.