The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The performances of young Caribbean athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games served as one of the inspirations for the government’s quest to heavily invest in sports development.

Prime Minister Perry Christie concluded the 2013/14 Budget Debate in the House of Assembly Tuesday night addressing the need for the country’s sporting infrastructure to facilitate the prospective talent of its athletes.

“We saw how a young man 18 years old from Grenada won CARIFTA, World Championship and the gold medal in the 400 metres at the Olympics. We saw a 19-year-old from Trinidad win the gold medal at CARIFTA, at the junior world championship and at the London olympic games. We know that teams selected to represent the Bahamas generally come from New Providence and Grand Bahama where facilities exists,” he said, “We will now change course and introduce a sports building programme in the family islands towards ultimately giving our young talented athletes access to proper facilities and therefore the potential to be the best they can be with the facilities will come proper coaching. We decided that we had all the evidence we needed to believe that in our islands there are Olympic gold medallists waiting to be discovered.”

In his communication, the Prime Minister announced that his administration “will begin the process to invest some $10 million in the construction” of multi-purpose sporting facilities in the Family Islands similar to those in New Providence and Grand Bahama, giving young athletes in those islands more opportunities to develop in competitive sports.

“We know of our players who played major league baseball, NBA basketball. We have seen Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace in swimming, our beach soccer team in the recent championship. In my communication I advised this honourable house that the government recognised that a very special effort to give people in the family islands access to proper sporting facilities should be regarded as a fundamental obligation. How could we have national championships when some islands have no facilities or inadequate facilities?” he said.

“The minister responsible for sports is moving quickly and has already had consultants and officers of the government identify sites for a sports complex in Abaco, Moore’s Island and Exuma. The minister will continue with identifying sites in Eleuthera, Andros, Cat Island and in other islands of the Bahamas. Full and complete plans will be put in place.”

Mr Christie said the government will not be undertaking such a large scale project alone. He said they are receiving help from the corporate world.

“The government has identified a mode of financing these sports centres and you will have seen the budgetary allocations of $10 million dollars. I expect that work in Abaco will start relatively quickly because Baker’s Bay developers have agreed to assist the government in the establishment of the centre in Abaco,” he said. “I am very excited over this intervention because for me, as a former track and field athlete, I believe there is a gold medallist to be discovered for the next Olympics in Brazil.”