By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
THE Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture has announced that the postponed National High Schools Championships will now be combined with the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ (BAAA) test run for the third IAAF World Relays next week at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.
At a joint press conference on Friday at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Minister Dr Daniel Johnson confirmed that the Nationals would run from Wednesday to Friday with the test run set to follow on Saturday and Sunday.
“This exciting High School Relays will give the operators of the National Sports Authority the chance to make sure that all of the systems are operating, all of our volunteers and persons who are managing those meets have everything under wraps so that once the main event, the IAAF World Relays, arrive that everything is system go,” said Tim Munnings, the Director of Sports at the Ministry.
Dr Johnson indicated that the postponement has created a problem as they are heavily into the promotion of sports in which they are experiencing an over-subscription of their events.
He mentioned the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship last month that was held at the newly-built national stadium that had to turn away spectators for the free-for-all event.
Dr Johnson recalled how the public and private schools were split into two separate organisations but they made a conscious decision to ensure that the nationals is open to all schools and they will pay for the schools and the athletes to come in from the Family Islands.
Last weekend, the Ministry of Education Science and Technology hosted a successful second annual National High School Basketball Championships in Grand Bahama and there are also plans for the soccer, volleyball, softball and baseball nationals over the next few months..
“We didn’t think the track was going to be this big,” he pointed out. “We ended up with one of the Family Islands, who wanted to send 300 children. We had to say ‘no hold on, we’re not set up for that. We don’t have the rooms, we don’t have the capacity to do this,’ so we had to call the BAAA.
“So next week, what you will see is what I call the ‘combine’ like in sailing where they have the ‘Best of the Best’ regatta with that great week where all of the best boats sail against the best boats. In track and field, you all will have evolved a schedule where people could see the best of the best.”
All the ministry is doing, according to Dr Johnson, is to ensure that all of the athletes from the Family Islands will have the same opportunities to compete as the athletes in New Providence.
However, he said after they found out that the event was over-subscribed, they had to make the decision to postpone so that they could accommodate the amount of people that they are bringing.
BAAA president Rosamunde Carey said they were delighted to be able to assist the Ministry in hosting the nationals with the estimated 45 teams, 24 from the Family Islands, and over 600 athletes competing in the meet.
“We are excited about the fireball of activities that will be taking place,” Carey stressed. “So it’s not just your schools that will be here, but it’s all of the major Family Islands.
“So we’re asking all of the Bahamas, all of our people here, to not just come out and support your schools, but the Family Island where you are born.”
Frank ‘Pancho’ Rahming, the Technical Director, said with the two events being staged one after the other they are prepared to accommodate the two.
The Nationals will comprise the under-14, under-16, under-18 and under-20 categories for boys and girls with all of the events contested except the relays for the under-20 divisions, which will be staged during the test event.
The Nationals will start at 9am and complete around 10pm on the three days. The test event will be held on Saturday at 6.30pm and Sunday at 3.30pm. Also included in the test event will be the Mixed Relays that will be introduced to the IAAF World Relays next month.
“The test event will remained as planned,” Rahming stressed. “The coaches will have to decide who they want to run in the High School Nationals, how they are going to set up their teams for the test event for the Relays because most of the coaches would want their teams to come back and compete in the junior competition for the relays itself.”
Two weeks after the Nationals and the test event, the BAAA will host the final Carifta trials for the team that will travel to Curacao over the Easter holiday weekend, April 15-17.
And on the heels of Carifta, the BAAA will host the third edition of the IAAF World Relays from April 22-23. In preparation for the World Relays, the BAAA will hold a camp for all athletes at the expense of the ministry.
More details will be released in The Tribune next week.
Comments
killemwitdakno 7 years ago
Sounds cool.
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