national para-athlete Inosi Matea [Source: abc.net.au]

Losing a leg to bone cancer as an 11-year-old didn’t even deter national para-athlete Inosi Matea from enjoying life.

While thousands in the country are still celebrating, even watching replays of the Fiji 7s and Fijiana teams’ performances at the Olympic Games, Matea and Iosefo Rakesa will leave our shores tonight with the hope of inspiring the next generation of athletes.

The Kadavu native played different sports before falling in love with javelin and he will represent us in that event at the Tokyo Paralympic Games which starts next Tuesday.

Matea says since taking up athletics in 2011, he excelled in various disciplines but decided to focus entirely on javelin.

“It was really tough decision to find out what sport would actually suit me. I’ve tried out short put, discus and hammer and javelin and out of all of those four, I did really good in Javelin.”

With the right support and motivation, Coach Freddy Fatiaki believes our two para-athletes will be able to achieve their goal.

“I guess from our side we just have to really give him that motivation and that self belief to compete at the level with the elite athletes that we have in that category.”

Iliesa Delana was the first Fijian to win a medal at the Paralympics after winning gold in the F42 high jump category in London in 2012.