Ask Australian basketball star Lauren Jackson how long it takes to prepare for a major competition and she’ll tell you it requires months of dedicated training.

Ask Nanese Bakani, Captain of the CQU FIC Women’s Basketball Team, and she’ll tell you the same thing ... except that it was a training period of just weeks and not months that led them to the final in the 2005 Fiji Tertiary Games.

Within 5 weeks of the Games’ official opening, Bakani set herself the herculean task of forming the team and training them ahead of the national competition.

“Convincing some of the girls to play was difficult at times – they lacked confidence but were keen to participate,” says the Accounting and Info-Systems student.

“A little harder was trying to persuade girls who had never played basketball before to join the team.”.

Lauren Jackson herself might be retreating from that challenge.

In between lunchtime training sessions and weekend get-togethers, the team also squeezed in a series of fundraising challenges to purchase new uniforms.

So in the little spare time that existed between shooting hoops and perfecting their defence, the team served hot dogs on campus, hip hopped at a dance night and climbed a mountain in Suva.

“The team was so enthusiastic, so willing to learn. Most fun was getting to know students from different programs,” says Bakani.

“We’re definitely going to train again next year, and our goal is to come first and win the final!”.

One imagines that Lauren Jackson’s advice to the Fiji team might be to give themselves more training time – like six weeks, for example.

Pictured: (Back Row) Ulamila Karisitiana, Nunia Moce, Talei Caniogo, Nanise Bakani, Neini Narokolevu. (Front Row) Meliana Baleitiro, Isapeti Antonio, Akesa Tomasi, Torika Soqoiwasa.