Fiji at the 2012 Summer Olympics |
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IOC code | FIJ | ||||||||
NOC | Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee | ||||||||
Website | www |
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in London | |||||||||
Competitors | 9 in 6 sports | ||||||||
Flag bearer |
Josateki Naulu (opening) Leslie Copeland (closing) |
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Medals |
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Officials | 14 | ||||||||
Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Fiji competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from July 27 to August 12, 2012. This was the nation's thirteenth appearance at the Olympics, having appeared at every games since 1956 except the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow due to the American-led boycott.
Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee sent a total of 9 athletes to the Games (6 men and 3 women) to compete in 6 sports. Among these athletes, trap shooter Glenn Kable, the oldest of the team, at age 49, and archer Robert Elder, after his eight-year absence, competed at their second Olympic games. Judoka and current Oceanic champion Josateki Naulu was the nation's first male flag bearer at the opening ceremony since 2000. Fiji, however, had to wait four more years for its first Olympic medal.
Fiji has qualified one male archer by being the second-ranked country at the 2012 Open New Zealand Championships, which doubled as the 2012 Oceanian Championships. Former Olympic athlete Robert Elder was chosen to represent Fiji. During the ranking round, Elder finished in penultimate place, out of 64 archers; therefore, he competed against South Korea's Kim Bub-Min, who placed in second. Elder almost pulled off the upset to win two of the first four sets, but he was unable to score a 10 with his final arrow during the last set, which guaranteed him a spot for the next elimination round.
Fiji selected two athletes in the track and field after having achieved qualifying standards in their respective events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at the 'A' Standard, and 1 at the 'B' Standard): Javelin thrower Leslie Copeland guaranteed a qualifying place at the Olympics, after achieving the B-standard at the 2011 Summer Universiade Games. During the Olympics, Copeland was able to throw past several strong competitors including Latvia's Vadims Vasiljevskis, an Olympic bronze medalist in Athens. However, his throw was not sufficiently enough to advance him into the finals, finishing only in thirteenth place.Danielle Alakija, on the other hand, competed at the Olympics by a wild card. She finished sixth during the heats in the women's 400 m, which seemed farther enough to advance her into the semi-finals.