Tavo upbeat despite dashed Rio medal hopes

While Hedland woman Rebecca Tavo’s own Olympic hopes were dashed after a game against Great Britain in which the Fijian women’s sevens team were knocked out of the semifinals, she was elated to be in Rio when the men’s sevens side won gold.

It was the first gold medal for Fiji, Tavo’s father’s home country, and a medal hard earned by the team.

Despite her side not coming close to glory, Tavo was very happy with her own performance and achievements in the Games.

“Personally for myself I’m stoked with everything,” she said.

“It was just perfect how it all turned out.

“We didn’t win or even come close to it, but I’m stoked with how it went.

“I couldn’t have done any more and I know that.”

Tavo said the Olympics were like nothing else she had experienced, and being in the Olympic surrounded by so many different sportspeople was something special.

“The coolest thing is there are so many countries and their sports here,” she said.

“You’ve got the tiniest little gymnast walking around or table tennis players, but then you turn left and you’ve got these massive basketballers that are just like towering over everyone and then you’ve got your shot-putters ... so it’s pretty surreal to sort of look around.

“They’re all from different countries and it’s just so cool because they’re the best from their countries at their sports.”

Tavo’s favourite game in the competition was against some of her former teammates from Australia.

“It’s all personal stuff, things didn’t really come together for us as a team for all different reasons, but for me, playing against Australia, I was happy that I got to tackle a few of them,” she said.

However, Tavo said her side’s performance against Great Britain was probably the best of the series.

“They obviously studied us and we couldn’t compete with that,” she said.

“They got us fair and square, but that was probably our best performance defensively.”

Tavo will return to Hedland in her role as a train driver after the Games.