{"id":839,"date":"2025-04-24T01:13:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unisport.wpenginepowered.com\/gold-at-unisport-nationals-athletics-following-landmark-onoc-partnership\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T13:13:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T03:13:16","slug":"gold-at-unisport-nationals-athletics-following-landmark-onoc-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/gold-at-unisport-nationals-athletics-following-landmark-onoc-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"National Fiji Record Broken at UniSport Nationals Athletics Following Landmark ONOC Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fijian distance runner, Yeshnil Karan, set a new Fiji national record in a sensational performance at the UniSport National Athletics Championship yesterday, claiming gold in the men\u2019s 10,000m final with a personal best time of 30:19.92.<\/p>\n

Yeshnil Karan running in the men’s 10,000m final Image credit: Luke Graves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yeshnil\u2019s win comes on the heels of a landmark partnership between the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) and UniSport Australia, aimed at providing greater opportunities for Pacific Island athletes to access national sporting competitions in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been preparing in Brisbane over the last few months and achieved five personal bests in Australia over the past 7 weeks,\u201d Yeshnil shared after his race. \u201cThank you to UniSport for allowing me and my training partners to compete in the Athletics Nationals. Also, thank you to all the competitors for being so friendly and supportive. In the future, I wish to come back again and run.\u201d<\/p>\n

The partnership between ONOC and UniSport is already proving fruitful, as it opens doors for Pacific Island athletes to access top Australian competitions, facilities, and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis partnership with ONOC reflects our commitment to inclusivity and sporting excellence across the Oceania region,\u201d Mark Sinderberry, CEO of UniSport Australia, said, \u201cYeshnil\u2019s performance is a great example of the talent and determination that exists throughout the Pacific. We\u2019re proud to provide a platform where athletes like Yeshnil can shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atma Maharaj, Programme Lead for Brisbane 2032 at ONOC, added, \u201cour goal is to elevate Pacific athletes by providing meaningful pathways in both sport and education. Through this collaboration with UniSport, we are breaking down barriers and enabling our athletes to compete at high levels while pursuing university studies. Yeshnil\u2019s success is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeshnil\u2019s journey and his gold medal win represent a powerful symbol of what\u2019s possible through collaboration, opportunity, and determination. As more Pacific athletes gain access to UniSport events, this initiative promises to foster not only sporting development, but also long-term educational and leadership outcomes across the region.<\/p>\n

About ONOC<\/u><\/p>\n

Established in 1981, the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) is one of five Continental Associations. It looks after the interests of 17 member nations in the Oceania Region, including Australia and New Zealand as well as seven associate members. ONOC has an office in Guam where Secretary General Mr. Ricardo Blas is based and the Secretariat in Suva, Fiji, where the Office of the President Dr Robin Mitchell is located.<\/p>\n

About UniSport<\/u><\/p>\n

UniSport Australia is the peak governing body of university sport in Australia. We promote and foster the importance of university sport as an integral part of university life at our member universities, who collectively represent more than one million students nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fijian distance runner, Yeshnil Karan, set a new Fiji national record in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"iawp_total_views":20,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,1],"unis_sport_category":[106],"unis_league_category":[],"unis_university_category":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-championships","category-unisport-news","unis_sport_category-athletics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"unis_sport_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unis_sport_category?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"unis_league_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unis_league_category?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"unis_university_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unis_university_category?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}