Athletics Fiji says US shooting of track star 'sad day'
The Fijian sporting community is in mourning after athletics representative Roy Ravana Junior was killed in a shooting incident in the United States.
Transcript
The Fijian sporting community is in mourning after athletics representative Roy Ravana Junior was killed in a shooting incident in the United States.
The 20 year old was in the US on an athletics scholarship and had represented Fiji at the World Indoor and Junior World Championships.
Sacramento Police say the shooting took place on Tuesday morning, with another person injured in the incident.
Two youths have since been arrested in relation to the shooting.
The President of Athletics Fiji, Jo Rodan Senior, told Vinnie Wylie it's a great tragedy.
JO RODAN SENIOR: It's a very sad day for Athletics Fiji and for Fiji itself, losing one of our potential athletes that has a lot of future, bright future ahead of him, and is one of our best and that's one of the reasons why he was selected to go the the States under a scholarship to study and also to train in the States. He's one of our brightest prospects as far as Athletics Fiji is concerned and it's really really sorry to see him lose his life in such a way.
VINNIE WYLIE: He obviously was still a very young man but he had already competed in a number of events: Junior World Championships, World Indoor Championships, Pacific Games [and] Mini Games so he'd already packed in quite a lot.
JR: Yes like I said he was one of the athletes that we had really prepared to grooming him up for bigger events in the future. He's already taken part in all those games and has won medals in all those games and we were preparing him actually for the Brazil Olympic Games in two years times. He was one of our brighter prospects for the Olympic Games and that's one of the reasons he was sent to the States to prepare him for bigger things in the future but, unfortunately, that has come to no avail.
VW: And 400m - was that his specialist event?
JR: Yes he's got the current school record in the Coke Games, which involves all the secondary schools in Fiji, and he broke that record in 2011 when he was still in Marist Brothers High School. He's the current record champ - for that his time was 47.2 seconds for the senior boys 400m. He's also a good 400m hurdler so we were preparing for both of those events - the 400m and the 400m hurdles - and we were hoping that at next year's South Pacific Games he would win us a gold medal, especially in the 400m hurdles. He was pretty good in the middle distance and a very good sprinter also.
VW: I understand he was trying to help somebody?
JR: Yes, that's from my understand. I think they were cleaning up where they were staying and there was some shooting and he saw someone lying on the ground and he wanted to run and help the poor kid that was lying on the ground and when he ran the culprit that did the shooting turned on him and fired at him and hit him and that's what killed him. You know the Fijians they've got instant reaction trying to help people out and in this case Roy reacted instantly when he saw someone lying on the ground and wanted to go and help but unfortunately it cost him his life.
The President of Athletics Fiji, Jo Rodan Senior.
Fiji Prime Minister, Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama, has expressed his shock and sadness at the killing, saying Ravana Junior was not only a great athlete but a wonderful role model for every young Fijian.
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