A Tribute by Bob Snow
Abridged Version
World Athletics Plaque of Merit 2023
Honorary Life Member of Oceania Athletics (2015)
“I met Fletcher in 1977 when he brought a team from Adelaide University to compete at the Fiji National Athletics Championships at Buckhurst Park, Suva. Fletcher was competing in the Pole Vault competition. I got to know Fletcher very well in the 1980’s, when he travelled to Papua New Guinea to hold coaching courses. For the next 25 years I had much to do with him in PNG and in various islands around the Pacific. and we still meet at Oceania Athletics events and the Pacific Games.
In 1987 Fletcher was conducting a coaching course in Suva Fiji, with many from the Fiji military attending. One was an officer, Sitiveni Rabuka, who attended on day one and then did not appear in subsequent days. As soon as the course was over, Sitiveni Rabuka conducted his coup, to take over control of Fiji. Fletcher was convinced that Col. Rabuka was using the coaching course attendance as an excuse to be away from military duties and organise the coup. This is just one of Fletcher’s well-known “war stories”.
In his role as the Director of IAAF’s Oceania Regional Development Centre in Adelaide, Fletcher travelled to every Pacific Island Athletics Federation to run courses for local coaches. Athletes from the Pacific Islands would come to stay at the RDC in Adelaide to get intensive coaching and participate in local competitions. At the 1992 Australian National Championships many Pacific Islanders competed with Subul Babo (PNG) and Autiko Daunakamakama Jnr (FIJ) both making finals.
Fletcher also coached many individual Pacific Island athletes such as Rachel Rogers (FIJ) a South Pacific Games 100mH champion. Along with her Pacific Games and Oceania successes, Rachel represented Fiji at the 1992 & 1994 World Junior Athletics Championships, 1996 Olympic Games and 1998 Commonwealth Games.
In 1995 Fletcher led a group of Pacific Island elite athletes to Europe for a series of meets prior to the World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. Jone Delai (FIJ) and Peter Pulu (PNG) were both outstanding breaking national records for the 100m at a meet in Stuttgart. Other athletes who benefitted from this intensive coaching and good competition were Rachel Rogers (FIJ), Toluta’u Koula (TGA), Siulolo Liku (TGA), Vaciseva Tavaga (FIJ), David Wilson (GUM) and Rosemary Turare-Omundsen (PNG). All told there were 18 new national records, 6 additional PB’s, 1 World Championship & Olympic A Qualifier, and 3 World Championships and Olympics B Qualifiers from this team of Oceania athletes.
Fletcher’s coaching along with an excellent vision to expose Oceania’s best athletes to appropriate overseas competition in Germany prior to the World Championships was an enormous success. All the athletes returned to the Pacific and excelled during the 1995 South Pacific Games in Tahiti soon after.
Over the years I grew to know Fletcher as a coach, coaching director, statistician, historian and friend. In the weeks prior to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Fletcher organised a huge coaching camp for the Oceania athletes in Raleigh, North Carolina. He also arranged the team’s attendance at high profile warm-up meets in North Carolina and Georgia. I was the PNG Athletics Team Manager for the Games. At the Games themselves, Fletcher was leader for the Vanuatu team.
On his retirement from the RDC position in 2006, Fletcher he was given a fantastic farewell in Apia, Samoa, following the successful Oceania Athletics Championships. The function was held at Vailima, the home of the famous author Robert Louis Stevenson. Every Oceania nation was in attendance and made a presentation to Fletcher and it was obvious that he was highly regarded in every part of the Pacific – Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
Fletcher McEwen at Oceania Athletics farewell function in Apia – December 2006
Fletcher Mc Ewen, along with Tony Rice [AUS] and Steve Hollings [NZL] established the Oceania Track and Field Coaches Association in 2002. This was the first time coaches in Oceania were represented and were given a ‘voice’.
In 2007 Fletcher produced the impressive book – Tracks in the Sand – The History of Athletics in Oceania. His involvement with the Islands is well detailed in this publication. A major part of the book details Australian and New Zealand historical performances starting with the colonial experience through to World War One, and continuing through to the early part of the 21st Century.
Fletcher Mc Ewen’s contribution to Athletics throughout Oceania is immense and his long-term legacy is well assured with the athletes and coaches he has influenced continuing to produce many great performances as well as making positive contributions to the communities they live in. Fletcher was recently elected unanimously as a Life Member of OTFCA.”
