Fiji's top male weightlifter Manueli Tulo is planning to stay back in London when the Olympics come to a close on the weekend. "I want to use up the visa for coming to London," said Tulo.
The 13th ranked Olympian in the 56kg class plans to stay with relatives and friends when the team heads back to Fiji on the August 15.
In the meantime since his competition on Sunday, July 29th, Tulo has been training but not putting pressure on his right knee which he injured in Samoa last month.
Weightlifting section manager and president of Weightlifting Fiji, Atma Maharaj has put in place a strategy to make Levuka weightlifting's centre of excellence.
Currently Levuka has only a few sets of weights compared to Samoa which has 52.
Maharaj is aiming to get 16 sets of weights to Fiji.
He says interest for weightlifting have also come from Rotuma and Kadavu.
Weightlifting Fiji plans to work with the Ministry of Youth and Sports to make weightlifting a top sport in the country. He says by having lifters placed 8th and 13th placing at the Olympics is something people need to be proud of.
"This is the best performance by any Fiji athlete ever at the Olympics," Maharaj said of Maria Liku and Tulo.
"We need to give credit to the two youngsters who have sacrificed for the last four years.
"Obviously we gotta thank all the people who've helped on the journey, there's a lot of people to be thanked from government to FASANOC, ONOC, IOC our sponsors, Paul Coffa and the IWF, Jo Vueti and parents of the two, the community in Levuka who've been behind this and the team that went to Samoa to qualify."