The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ORIGINALLY scheduled to depart for competition next month, the small contingent of athletes set to represent The Bahamas  at the fifth edition of the Youth Commonwealth Games had their plans sidetracked by fear of a disease outbreak.

Romell Knowles, secretary general of the Bahamas Olympic Committee, announced that the team would not compete at the biennial meet due to an outbreak of dengue and chikungunya in Apia, Samoa.

“There has been a dengue and chikungunya outbreak right next to the facilities, the training centre and to the village and so we are troubled to send our young kids so far, from the Bahamas and to an area that’s contaminated. There has been a lot of back and forth and our concern is a lot of kids will leave Samoa and head directly to college, and we don’t want them to miss any of their collegiate days,” he said.

“There are one or two parents that would like for us to reconsider and we are getting legal advice. If they choose to indemnify the BOC and take on the responsibility, that’s something we may consider. We are taking legal advice on that and medical advice as well. But we won’t put our kids in harms way.”

The Commonwealth Youth Games are a small-scale version of the Commonwealth Games, designed for the youth of the 71 Commonwealth countries.

Seven sports will be contested at the 2015 Games in Samoa, followed by the 2017 event which will be hosted in St Lucia.

The first Commonwealth Youth Games were held in Scotland in August 2000 where 733 athletes from 14 countries competed in eight sports over three days.

The second edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games took place in Australia in December 2004 and saw over 1,000 athletes and officials from 22 countries in a 10-sport programme.

The third Youth Games were held in the Indian city of Pune October 12-18, 2008 where 71 nations and territories participated in nine sports.

A decision was taken by the Commonwealth Games Federation at their general assembly in 2005 to move the Youth Games outside of the Olympic Games year and in doing so awarded the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games to the Isle of Man.

At the Isle of Man Games, The Bahamas competed in two of eight disciplines - athletics (track and field) and cycling. The other sports were badminton, boxing, gymnastics for men and women, rugby 7s and swimming.

A decision was taken at the general assembly in 2008 to award the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games to Samoa and also to subsequently adjust the quadrennial cycle, so that future events will take place in 2017, 2021 and so on.

All competitors in the Commonwealth Youth Games are between 14-18 years of age on the year of competition. A maximum number of 1,000 competitors are invited to participate from every Commonwealth Games Association.