By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
IT was supposed to be the first day of competition for the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture's National Track and Field Championships yesterday at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.
But midway into the morning session of the championships as officials were completing the preliminaries of the 100 metres in all divisions, it was announced that the three-day championships have been postponed until further notice.
Timothy Munnings, the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and Drumeco Archer, president of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations, made the announcement to the coaches of the 80-plus participating schools.
In an announcement from Philippa Arnett-Willie, the ministry apologised to the athletes, coaches, officials and spectators for the decision to postpone the championships.
"The global concerns of COVID-19 is here. We are concerned about what we can do to mitigate and protect our young athletes and students, teachers, administrators and spectators," he said.
"There are no known cases of the virus in the Bahamas, but in the abundance of precaution, the Government of the Bahamas has decided to take a step of just discontinuing the meet until further notice. So we will postpone the meet until further notice."
Munnings revealed that the Bahamas Cabinet met on Wednesday night and made the decision to postpone any event like the nationals, which attract any large crowd of competitors as well as spectators.
"Just like the NBA did in cancelling their games on Wednesday night, we want to take a similar stance here," Munnings said. "Although we don't have any known cases of COVID-19, we just want to protect everyone." Archer said an executive decision was made by the government of the Bahamas and they are precautionary steps for the welfare of the Bahamian people in wake of the coronavirus.
"This is disappointing in the most profound way. Words can't express how I feel," Archer said. "This is really, in my mind, the most important junior event in the country and of course you have 1,500 kids here.
"The logistics now to repatriate the athletes to their respective islands now become a major task as they make their way back to their respective homes. I suppose the broader question would be if we postpone this event, with respect to the gathering of schools from the wider community with respect to schools and churches, do we postpone those events as well."
The championships featured athletes from throughout the Bahamas, including Grand Bahama, Abaco, Andros, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Exuma, Long Island, Inagua, San Salvador and Mayguana.
Munnings said while the Family Island athletes are responsible for making their own travel arrangements to New Providence, the Ministry is responsible for transporting them from the airport, accommodate them during their stay and transport them back to the airport.
He noted that those arrangements are still in place, but the Ministry will be working feverishly on assisting the teams in getting back to their respective islands over the next few days.
"They will be housed and fed and then we will seek to see how best we can return them to their various destinations," he stated. "We will continue to accommodate them as best as we could during their stay here."
Coach Norris Bain, who spoke on behalf of the Tabernacle Baptist Falcons out of Grand Bahama, said he and the other teams from Grand Bahama and even the Family Islands only wished that they had known about the pending cancelation a day earlier.
"I understand the precautions and what needs to be done, but we're going to try and get these kids back home as quickly as we can to their parents," he said. "I just wished it was a day earlier so we could have stayed home.
"But we can't fault the government. We just have to take the necessary precautions and do what is best for the athletes. I just wished we had known a day earlier so we could have avoided spending the money to come here. Safety has to be our number priority."
One of the top athletes competing in the meet, Anthaya Charlton, who now represents St Anne's Bluewaves, said she's kind of confused because they were told that no one in the Bahamas had contracted the virus.
"I guess it's just for safety precaution, but we need to know if they are just going to postpone it or cancel it," she said.
Charlton, one of the top versatile athletes competing in the meet in the 100m, 100m hurdles and the long jump, said she was hoping to use the meet to qualify for the Carifta Games, but she indicated that she may have to wait for the trials if they have it
Munnings said the postpone of local sporting events of this magnitude will remain in effect until the end of the month, which will affect the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations' final Carifta trials next weekend as well as the National Primary Schools Track and Field Championships.
Up to the time of the announcement, officials from the Bahamas Association of Certified Officials had completed the preliminaries of the 100 metres in all divisions - under-13, under-15, under-17 and under-20.
On the field, events contested up to the time of the postponement were the under-20 girls' high jump, under-15 boys' shot put, under-17 girls' discus, under-15 girls' javelin and the under-20 boys' octathlon long jump. The first event completed for the octathlon was the 100m.
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