Fijian Saimoni Vunilagi has died of suspected heatstroke after a training session, his club Kyuden Voltex have announced.<\/p>\n
The Japanese second division team, based in Fukuoka, said the 26-year-old was taken to hospital and died on Friday, 7 August.<\/p>\n
Temperatures in the southern city of Fukuoka this week have reached 35C degrees.<\/p>\n
“After team practice on Monday, 3 August 2026, Saimoni displayed symptoms consistent with severe heatstroke. He was transported to a medical facility for treatment, but despite the best efforts of the medical team, he sadly passed away,” a team statement said.<\/p>\n
“The players, staff, and all team associates are devastated by this sudden news.<\/p>\n
“Although Saimoni had only recently joined Kyushu KV, his generous spirit and powerful style of play had raised high hopes for his contributions in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
“We humbly pray for the repose of his soul and extend our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family.<\/p>\n
“At this time of profound grief, we respectfully ask the family be granted space and privacy.”<\/p>\n
Back rower Vunilagi joined Kyuden Voltex last month having previously played in the top flight for Japan Rugby League One side Tokyo Sungoliath.<\/p>\n
The 6ft 5in (1.96m), 18st 6lb (117kg) forward attended university in Japan and began his professional career in 2023.<\/p>\n
“We express our heartfelt condolences upon receiving the news of the passing of Saimoni. We offer our deepest condolences to the bereaved family and all those involved,” a statement from Japan Rugby League One read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fijian Saimoni Vunilagi has died of suspected heatstroke after a training session, his club Kyuden Voltex have announced.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-587033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}