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Fiji Sevens star gets bumper cash bonus following Olympic glory
By Chris Jones
Captain Jerry Tuwai has been rewarded for leading Fiji’s successful defence of their men’s Olympic Games sevens gold medal in Tokyo with a cash bonus of £23,000 (Fiji $66,300) with half the money to help him build a new house.
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Voreqe Bainimarama, Fiji Prime Minister and President of the Fiji Rugby Union, has announced that each team member and team management of the Fiji 7s side will receive £11,300 ($33,000) each while the bronze medal winning Fijiana side will receive £3,700 ($11,000) each.
Tuwai, who is the only rugby player to win two Olympic gold medals, will receive a reward of $33,300 towards the cost of his house whenever he decides to build one. A residential lot has already been bought by the Fijian Government Tacirua East subdivision for the national team captain.
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Fiji defeated New Zealand in final to repeat their success in Rio in 2016 and one member of the squad has revealed he took inspiration from previous stars from the Pacific Islands nations which meant he sported a moustache throughout the tournament in Tokyo. Jiuta Wainiqolo, who scored five of Fiji’s tries in Japan, told SunSports the only reason he played with a moustache was to pay tribute to our former national rugby sevens legends.
He explained: “I watched (videos) of our sevens stars like Mesake Rasari, Tomasi Cama (Snr), Marika Vunibaka and Viliame Satala. Most of them had a moustache and when I was in the squad for the Olympics I decided to grow one.
“So when I was playing in the Olympics, the moustache was a way for me to honour our rugby heroes. Before the Great Britain (semi-final) game, Tuwai and Semi(Radradra) told me that my mission was to run straight at Dan Norton. When I got the ball I did just that and ran over him. Actually, I wanted to laugh but I had to continue running to score the try. After the game, I went to apologise to Norton for what had happened but he laughed and said, ‘I’m only human and I make mistakes.’
“In the final against New Zealand, Tuwai and Semi again told me to run for my life every time I get the ball and that was how I scored a try by running through three players.”
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