Lautoka wins Inaugural Corrections Skills

Friday, June 29.

Lautoka made a clean sweep of the inaugural Corrections Skills Competition taking out both the Men’s and Women’s competition on Thursday afternoon at the Naboro Complex.

The Lautoka Womens Corrections Center team had a commanding victory over Suva Women’s Correction team to take top honours, whilst the Lautoka Remand Center team scored top averages in all exercises to top the men’s division.

The 2-day exercise, which is a first for the Fiji Corrections Service brought out 19 teams from within the 15 Institutions plus the National Headquarters and Training Academy to compete.

The competition which ran over 2-days consisted of a theory examination and a demanding 7km Obstacle course over the rugged Naboro Farm and bush terrain which tested each team physically and mentally.

While handing over the spoils of battle Deputy Commissioner of Corrections Apimeleki Taukei paid tribute to the hard yards put in by all participants and their team managers over the two days.

“Today provided a good test on how strong your sense of bonding was and the importance of working together,” he said.

“On behalf of the Commissioner I want to thank and congratulate you on your efforts today, we know you all did you very best but there can only be one winner.”

“I congratulate Lautoka for taking down both titles, and that should be a challenge for the rest of you.

“Today also you would have been able to understand better the essence of team work, we are a team of many teams and it is important that each team works together in this line of work.”

Lautoka Remand Center team manager TPCO Sebasitiano Vulakoro said it was through the grace of God and their strict focus at the weekly Wellness programs that boosted their efforts.

“We would like to thank the Commissioner of Corrections for this excellent event, we enjoyed it and we also learned a lot,” said Vulakoro.

“The team we sent to represent us were the ones who were always focused in our wellness programs and so were the best prepared and most of all were the ones who listened to instructions.”

The scores were all very close in the end which showed the level of competitions brought to the floor by all teams.

Lautoka Remand edged out the National Headquarters team who settled for second while the Medium Corrections Center almost beat NHQ team to the second spot but were edged out in the theory exams.

In the women’s competition however, the Lautoka Womens Corrections Center scored a massive lead from day one in the theory exams and further extended their lead on Day 2 in the obstacle course race.

The FCS hopes to organise another similar event in the upcoming Corrections Day Celebrations this October.

(More photos can be found in photo gallery)

Final Scores

Men’s: 1^st – Lautoka Remand Center             80.5 points

2^nd – National Headquarters                78.4 points

3^rd – Medium Corrections Center        78.1 points

Women’s:  1^st – Lautoka Womens CC           47 points

2^nd – Suva Womens CC                39 points