Jovesa Seuseu "Jojo" Naivalu (born 19 March 1978) is a Fiji-American athlete. In the sport of athletics, Naivalu is the

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

national record holder in both the

110 metres hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a rac ...

and the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...

. He represented Fiji at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and the

1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics were held in Sydney, Australia on August 20–25. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unofficial count through an unofficial result list, 1049 athletes from 142 c ...

in the

. In the sport of

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

he represented the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from 2000 to 2004 winning 10

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

. He also represented the

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

. During the 2008/09 season he played for Frankfurt SC in the

Rugby-Bundesliga The Rugby-Bundesliga is the highest level of the league system for rugby union in Germany, organised by the German Rugby Federation. The league has a mix of professional, semi-professional and amateur players, with four club in the league bein ...

in Germany, making 15 appearances for the club.

Biography

Naivalu was born 19 March 1978 in

Lautoka Lautoka (, ) is the second largest List of cities and towns in Fiji#List, metropolitan area in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division, Fiji, Western Division. Lying in the heart of ...

, Fiji. Naivalu moved to the United States in 1986. He competed for Fremont High School in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

, winning the

at the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

in 1995 and 1996. Naivalu was selected to the small Fiji 1996 Olympic team that year. The Olympic hurdles are 3" higher than they are in high school. Naivalu finished 6th in his qualifying heat in the

. Running hurdles he was used to, a month later he took a bronze medal at the

IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the yea ...

. The following year, he set the Fijian national record of 13.82 (+0.3) in the 110 metres hurdles in the qualifying round of the

IAAF World Championships The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...

. He competed in the 1999 and 2003 (South)

Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continent, continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 South Pacific Games, 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently i ...

, winning the 110 hurdles and finishing second in the

, setting the national record 51.67 in the latter in 1999 at

Santa Rita, Guam Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christma ...

. He turned down a scholarship to the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

Rugby

The Fiji Olympic Committee wasn't doling out money to support athletes, so Naivalu followed his brother Saimoni into the world of professional rugby, playing for the San Jose Seahawks. Still making $300 a game, he had to work security for grocery stores to support himself.

Defilement and imprisonment

In May 2003, Naivalu was arrested for defiling his 16-year old girlfriend. He was charged and jailed for seven years. After being released from jail, he left for Fiji where he currently resides and coaches the

Suva Grammar School Suva Grammar School (or SGS) is a secondary school in Suva, Fiji. The school caters 6 streams for Forms 3 (Year 9) to 6 (Year 12) and 4 streams for Form 7 (Year 13). Suva Grammar has a school population of approximately 1200 students (as of Febru ...

athletics team for the Coke Games

Athletics achievements

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naivalu, Jovesa 1978 births Living people 20th-century American sportsmen American expatriate rugby union players American expatriate sportspeople in Germany American male hurdlers American people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Fiji Expatriate rugby union players in Germany Fijian emigrants to the United States Fijian expatriate rugby union players Fijian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Fijian male hurdlers Fijian rugby union players I-Taukei Fijian people Male rugby sevens players Olympic athletes for Fiji Pacific Games gold medalists for Fiji Pacific Games medalists in athletics Pacific Games silver medalists for Fiji Rugby union players from Ba Province Rugby union players from California Rugby union wings SC 1880 Frankfurt players Sportspeople from Lautoka Sportspeople from Sunnyvale, California Track and field athletes from California Track and field athletes from San Jose, California United States international rugby sevens players United States international rugby union players