Eugene Vollmer

Olympic hopefuls Banuve Tabakaucoro and Eugene Vollmer hope the prospect of travelling to Australia for qualifying events would soon become a reality.

This is after the two failed to meet the qualifying times and distance respectively in today’s National Easter championship.

The Easter championship was the last local event recognized as a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The qualifying time for Tabakaucoro in the 100m was 10.5 seconds but the ‘Bau Bullet’ clocked a time of 10.79s.

He had another chance in the 200m to meet the 20.24s cut off time but he finished in 21.79s.

Vollmer on the other hand was required to jump or exceed 17m but was less than two meters short with a distance of 15.24m.

The national triple jump champion says they have their fingers crossed of travelling overseas.

“We have yet to hear from FASANOC and our national federation. They have budgeted for it but they are yet to confirm to us on what the few steps would be.”

On the same note, Tabakucoro says they need to compete with athletes who can push them to another level.

“Right now is just about getting overseas, competing as much as I can to drop those times. I’m physically fit right now, everything is okay, and it’s just pretty much the competitions.”

If the two are not able to travel overseas for the qualifying meets, Athletics Fiji will than consider their points and ranking which will determine which athlete takes the universality spot.