Fiji athlete Niko Verekauta has been welcomed into the newly established Oceania Athletics Association High performance Training Centre on the Gold Coast after a lay off since attending the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Verekauta continues with his Olympic Solidarity Scholarship and will continue to train at the High Performance Training centre through to 2010 with the hope of looking forward to the London Olympics in 2012.

He has teamed up with 1984 Olympic Games heptathlon gold medalist Glynis Nunn Cearns in his preparation.

Verekauta last weekend took part in the first leg of the Gold Coast Winter Series Meets.

His performance of 10.70 seconds in the 100 metres and 48.3 seconds in the 400 metres were encouraging given his short time at the High Performance Training Centre.