Fiji’s top umpires, Litia Rabitu and Yvonne Vaka, have achieved their goal of obtaining New Zealand umpires badges, a significant accomplishment in their officiating careers.
Rabitu was re endorsed to NZ umpires C badge, while Yvonne Vaka obtained her NZ Zone award.
Obtaining the New Zealand C badge and Zone award opens up exciting opportunities for both umpires, allowing them to participate in overseas Netball Tournaments and contribute to the development of upcoming umpires in the country.
Rabitu explained that they were reviewed at all their games by New Zealand umpire coaches.
“We had a good week of great coaching from our 1st game on Monday till Friday last week, two games in a day morning and afternoon ,with every game we umpired different coaches present in our games for after match feedbacks,” said Rabitu.
“On Wednesday we both had our Badges endorsed NZ C AWARD and ZONE AWARD which was a great news and a major boost to our games on the last two days.We had umpired A senior games and B senior grades which was the 1st of its kind for Fiji Umpires coming into UNISS.”
Rabitu expressed her excitement at being selected to umpire the A grade semifinals, a role typically reserved for New Zealand award umpires.
“The surprising schedule for the tournament was my appointment to umpire A grade semifinal on Friday as this was always given to NZ award umpires in NZ.”
Rabitu extended her gratitude to Netball Fiji for making their achievements possible within a tight timeframe.
“We are forever grateful to Netball Fiji who made all this possible despite the little time we had, we will always be ready to give back to NF in anyway for the development of umpires and also share the knowledge of what we had been taught on our week tournament here in NZ,” added Rabitu.
Litia Rabitu and Yvonne Vaka’s journey to obtaining New Zealand C badges is a testament to their dedication and passion for umpiring, it also opens up exciting new horizons for the two, and their contributions to the netball in Fiji.
